The Labor Relations Commission issued its first decision recognizing the principal contractor's "employer status" 24 days after the yellow envelope law, a new labor law aimed at strengthening the bargaining rights of subcontract workers, took effect.
According to the Labor Relations Commission on the 2nd, the South Chungcheong Regional Labor Relations Commission concluded its adjudication and judgment meetings that day and found that four public institutions—Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO), and Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS)—have employer status.
The commission said, "Based on the findings confirmed through the investigation results and hearings, the adjudication committee recognized, from the service contracts and statements of work, that each public institution holds the substantive status of an employer under the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act in areas such as safety management and manpower allocation for subcontracted workers," adding, "This means the public institutions as principal contractors should, as a procedural matter, engage in bargaining—namely, dialogue—with the applicant, the Public Solidarity Labor Union."
With this decision, subcontracted workers at the four institutions—Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO), and Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS)—will all bargain with the principal-contractor employer. If the principal-contractor employer refuses to bargain willfully and in bad faith despite being recognized as the employer by the commission, it will be penalized for an unfair labor practice.