Supreme Court: Workers from Partner Companies at Hyundai Motor Research Institute Also Considered Dispatched Workers Employed by Headquarters

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] Workers employed by subcontractors who have worked for more than two years at Hyundai Motor Company's Namyang Research Center have been recognized by the Supreme Court as "dispatched workers directly employed by Hyundai Motor."

Accordingly, the Supreme Court ruled that these subcontractor workers must be compensated for the wage differences they had experienced compared to regular employees.

The Supreme Court's Third Division (Presiding Justice Lee Dong-won) on the 26th upheld the lower court's partial ruling in favor of four subcontractor workers, including Mr. Park, who had worked for about 10 years at Hyundai Motor's Namyang Research Center and filed an appeal lawsuit against Hyundai Motor requesting confirmation of their worker status.

The court stated, "There is no error in the lower court's understanding of the legal requirements for worker dispatch or the criteria distinguishing in-house subcontracting."

As a result of this ruling, Mr. Park and others will receive damages ranging from 37 million to 40 million KRW each, claimed as the wage difference due to discrimination compared to regular employees.

Since 2005-2006, they were responsible for painting tasks on test vehicles at the Namyang Research Center, which handles new car research and development for Hyundai Motor.

All of them worked for subcontractors that had contracts with Hyundai Motor. Even after the subcontractor was replaced once, their employment was succeeded. In October 2014, they filed a lawsuit against Hyundai Motor seeking confirmation of their worker status.

The first trial court ruled in favor of Mr. Park and others, stating, "It is reasonable to view that the plaintiffs have continuously performed substantially the same or similar tasks as Hyundai Motor employees working in the painting process at Hyundai Motor's mass production plant since the time the employment obligation arose."

The second trial court also upheld the first trial's decision, stating, "Hyundai Motor, not the subcontractor, determined the number of workers assigned to painting tasks, daily workload, working hours, methods, order, content, speed, and location of work."

The court viewed that, based on the substance of the employment relationship and Supreme Court precedents distinguishing genuine subcontract contracts from worker dispatch contracts (disguised subcontract contracts), these workers were not under subcontract contracts but were dispatched to Hyundai Motor and directly supervised and ordered by Hyundai Motor as dispatched workers.

Accordingly, it was judged that under the Act on the Protection of Dispatched Workers, Hyundai Motor has the obligation to directly employ them after two years from their initial employment date.

The Supreme Court agreed with this lower court judgment. Previously, the Supreme Court had recognized in-house subcontracting at Hyundai Motor's Asan plant as worker dispatch, and this ruling expands the recognition of dispatched workers to subcontractor workers at the research center.

Attorney Kim Ki-duk of Saenal Law Office, who legally represented the plaintiffs in this case, explained, "This Supreme Court ruling is significant in that it recognized dispatched work even for tasks performed solely by subcontractor workers."

He added, "It is expected to impact manufacturing workplaces across the automotive, electronics, and steel industries that have used in-house subcontractor workers in similar forms."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.