Court: "Kia Motors to pay 47.9 billion KRW to over 2,000 employees"… Also loses individual lawsuits on ordinary wages

On the 15th, the new logo of Kia Motors was displayed on the exterior wall of the Kia Motors headquarters building in Seocho-gu, Seoul. The new logo removes the previous red oval border and presents the letters "KIA" in a simple and futuristic style. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] Kia Motors has been ordered by a first-instance court ruling to pay wages amounting to 50 billion won to about 2,000 employees who filed lawsuits independently of the past special labor-management agreement concerning ordinary wages.

According to the court on the 27th, the Seoul Central District Court Civil Division 42 (then presiding judge Ma Eun-hyuk) ruled in mid-month that two wage lawsuits filed by Kia employees against the company were partially won by the plaintiffs.

The lawsuits were filed by 2,446 employees in two separate cases. The total wages Kia must pay amount to approximately 47.94 billion won for both lawsuits combined, averaging about 19.6 million won per person. Previously, after losing the appeals in the first and second ordinary wage lawsuits filed by the labor union, Kia reached a special agreement with the union in March 2019 to pay a certain amount to employees who withdrew their lawsuits or submitted a non-litigation consent form to the company.

However, some employees did not agree to this settlement and filed lawsuits in May 2019 claiming wages for the years 2011 to 2014. In court, the issue was whether individual employees could file separate lawsuits even though 13 union representatives had already filed and withdrawn a lawsuit concerning wages for 2011 to 2014 in the past.

Kia argued in court that "the plaintiffs should be considered to have agreed not to file lawsuits by accepting the representative lawsuit settlement or at least to have waived their right to sue." They also emphasized that the workers' right to claim wages had expired due to the statute of limitations, as the lawsuits were filed after the expiration period.

However, the court stated, "The mere fact that a representative lawsuit settlement was concluded between the defendant (Kia) and the union is insufficient to recognize that individual workers agreed not to file lawsuits against the defendant." Furthermore, the court ruled that "the claim that the statute of limitations has been completed is an abuse of rights contrary to the principle of good faith."

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