This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz RM Report website at 6:08 p.m. on Apr. 15, 2026.
The Supreme Court will hand down a final ruling on the 16th in a lawsuit filed by employees of POSCO's partner companies seeking to be recognized as POSCO employees. The Metal Workers' Union under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) says its members are currently in an illegal dispatch status. POSCO recently announced it would directly hire 7,000 employees from partner companies, but the Metal Workers' Union is pushing back. Attention is on whether POSCO and the Metal Workers' Union will change their responses depending on the Supreme Court's decision.
According to legal sources, the Supreme Court is scheduled to deliver rulings on two appeals in lawsuits filed by 223 workers, including a person surnamed Gu from POSCO's partner companies, seeking confirmation of employee status.
According to the Metal Workers' Union, employees of POSCO's partner companies have filed 10 rounds of lawsuits seeking confirmation of employee status since 2011. Fifty-nine people took part in the first and second lawsuits, and on July 28, 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that POSCO must directly hire the plaintiffs except for four who had passed the retirement age. Although there were subcontracting contracts, the court found they were in fact in an illegal dispatch status in violation of the Act on the Protection of Dispatched Workers.
This Supreme Court ruling concerns 223 plaintiffs who took part in the third and fourth lawsuits. Plaintiffs in the first and second suits handled crane, plant and product work at POSCO's steelworks, while plaintiffs in the third and fourth suits are responsible for raw material unloading, roll processing, rolling processes and steelmaking processes.
In February 2022, the Gwangju High Court ruled on appeal that the plaintiffs in the third and fourth lawsuits were in an illegal dispatch status. POSCO appealed, sending the case to the Supreme Court for a final decision. If the partner company employees win, POSCO must directly hire them.
If POSCO's loss is finalized, additional burdens could arise beyond labor costs to be paid going forward due to conversion to regular employment. Following the first and second lawsuit results, former partner company workers who were directly hired by POSCO filed damages suits against POSCO seeking the difference between wages they could have received absent illegal dispatch and the wages they actually received.
Employees of POSCO's partner companies have now filed up to the 10th round of lawsuits. The fifth to seventh suits are pending at the Supreme Court, and the eighth to tenth suits are in first-instance proceedings. The plaintiffs number more than 2,000. The Seoul High Court ruled on appeal in the fifth to seventh suits that POSCO must directly hire them.
On the 8th, POSCO said it would directly hire about 7,000 employees of partner companies at the Pohang and Gwangyang steelworks. In addition to the existing regular production (E) job group, POSCO plans to create a new "synergy (S) job group" and directly hire about half of the more than 15,000 workers at all partner companies.
However, employees of partner companies are pushing back, saying their treatment will differ from that of existing regular employees. The Metal Workers' Union said, "They are unilaterally pushing ahead without any agreement or consultation with the Metal Workers' Union POSCO in-house subcontractors' chapter (Gwangyang and Pohang) workers who have filed illegal dispatch lawsuits," and claimed, "They held briefings for some subcontracted workers to convert them into so-called regular employees who would receive half the wages of regular workers."