Court Rules "Tada Drivers Are Not Workers"... Controversy Over Worker Status in 'Platform Labor' Anticipated

Seoul Administrative Court Cancels Central Labor Relations Commission Decision

Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The court has ruled that drivers of the vehicle dispatch service Tada cannot be considered employees. In a situation where conflicts between platform companies and workers are erupting over whether platform workers should be recognized as employees, this ruling is expected to have a significant impact on similar cases in the future.

At 10 a.m. on the 8th, the Administrative Division 3 of the Seoul Administrative Court (Presiding Judge Yoo Hwanwoo) ruled in favor of the plaintiff in an administrative lawsuit filed by the car-sharing company Socar against the Central Labor Commission, requesting the cancellation of the decision recognizing unfair dismissal. The court held that Socar is not the employer of Tada drivers.

Immediately after the ruling, the Tada Drivers Emergency Response Committee told reporters, "Socar made the final management decisions, so it is the manager," and expressed disbelief, saying, "Last year in the UK, Uber drivers were recognized as employees, so why is Korea following the form of a developing country?" They also stated that they would consider whether to appeal.

Tada is a service where users call an 11-passenger van with a driver via a smartphone application. It was operated by VCNC, a subsidiary of Socar and the operator of Tada, which rented cars from Socar and then rented them out again to customers along with drivers.

Tada driver Mr. A signed a freelancer contract with VCNC in May 2019 and operated a Tada Basic vehicle. Two months after signing the contract, he was notified by VCNC that "personnel reduction is inevitable" and was excluded from operation.

After losing his job, Mr. A claimed that he was effectively an employee and filed an application for relief from unfair dismissal. Socar, dissatisfied with the Central Labor Commission’s recognition of Socar as the employer and the judgment that the contract termination was unfair dismissal, filed an administrative lawsuit in July 2020.

With the Central Labor Commission’s decision overturned by this ruling, it is expected that the prosecution’s plan to prove guilt in the criminal trials of former Socar CEO Lee Jae-woong and former VCNC CEO Park Jae-wook (current Socar CEO) will inevitably be affected. They were indicted on charges of violating the Passenger Transport Service Act for allegedly operating an illegal call taxi business without a license using Tada, but were acquitted in the first trial.

Displeased with the first trial verdict, the prosecution appealed and planned to prove that Tada drivers are workers, thereby proving that Tada conducted illegal passenger transport business. The second trial court previously stated that it would make a conclusion on the criminal trial of Lee and others after reviewing the administrative court ruling.

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