Samsung Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, and other four shipbuilders report Hyundai Heavy Industries to the Fair Trade Commission for "unfair inducement of workforce poaching"

Suspicions of Preferential Treatment in Hiring Procedures Targeting Mid-Level Professionals

Beyond the downtown area of Dong-gu, Ulsan, the Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard can be seen. The photo is not directly related to the article. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] The four shipbuilding companies?Samsung Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, Daehan Shipbuilding, and K Shipbuilding?announced that they have reported to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) that Hyundai Heavy Industries Group affiliates, including Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, and Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, are unfairly poaching and hiring their technical personnel, thereby obstructing their business activities.

According to the report submitted by the four shipbuilders to the KFTC on the 30th, they claimed that "the three Hyundai Heavy Industries affiliates directly contacted numerous key personnel in each company's core business areas, offering job transfer proposals and providing excessive benefits beyond normal compensation," and "in some cases, they even granted preferential treatment in the hiring process, such as exempting candidates from document screening, thereby unfairly attracting a large number of personnel."

They emphasized that this has not only caused direct damage by disrupting the progress and quality control of ongoing projects at the reporting companies but also significantly restricted future order competition, constituting business activity obstruction prohibited under the Fair Trade Act.

The companies stated, "The three Hyundai Heavy Industries affiliates appear to have focused on aggressively recruiting experienced personnel this year, especially during a period when orders in the shipbuilding industry surged and following the failed merger and acquisition of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, with the aim of rapidly dominating market share."

One of the reporting companies claimed, "About 70 personnel have moved to the three Hyundai Heavy Industries affiliates this year," adding, "Most of these individuals are core operational staff in LNG (liquefied natural gas) carriers and in the fields of floating liquefied natural gas production, liquefaction, and storage facilities (FLNG) and floating production, storage, and offloading facilities (FPSO), which are considered more competitive than those of the Hyundai Heavy Industries affiliates, and they were targeted for recruitment."

The reporting companies said, "The three Hyundai Heavy Industries affiliates, leveraging their financial power, are causing a very serious threat to business operations by unfairly recruiting skilled personnel from competitors, which led to the report to the KFTC," and stressed, "If they continue to unfairly lure skilled personnel from competitors instead of investing in workforce development, it will not only hinder fair market competition but ultimately weaken the competitiveness of Korea's shipbuilding and marine industry. The self-regulatory function must be restored promptly."

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