The permanent special counsel for Coupang and labor rights is questioning Jeong Jong-cheol, CEO of Coupang Fulfillment Services (CFS).
According to legal sources, starting at 10 a.m. on the 2nd, the special counsel summoned Jeong as a suspect on charges of violating the Act on the Guarantee of Employees' Retirement Benefits and is under investigation. The special counsel is said to be checking the overall circumstances, including the background of the work rule change and the decision-making process, in relation to Jeong.
Jeong and former CEO Eom Seong-hwan are suspected of changing work rules in May 2023 in a way unfavorable to employees and withholding payments of a retirement benefit nature. At the time, the company is known to have changed its standards for paying retirement benefits from "even daily workers who work for more than one year are excluded only for periods with fewer than 15 working hours per week" to "those who work for more than one year and have at least 15 working hours per week." Because the rule required recalculating the retirement benefit accrual period from the point when even a single day with 15 or fewer weekly working hours occurred during the employment period, it was also called the "retirement pay reset rule."
The special counsel also summoned former CEO Eom as a suspect on the 26th. The background and application method of the work rule changes involving Coupang, as well as the overall process of calculating and paying retirement benefits in practice, are expected to become key issues in the investigation.