Kia Motors 3rd Regular Wage Lawsuit, Court Rules "Partial Victory for Workers"

On January 15 last year, Kia Motors' new logo was displayed on the exterior wall of the Kia Motors headquarters building in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] Over 3,100 Kia Motors employees partially won the first trial of the 'third lawsuit' they filed against the company, refusing to accept a past special labor-management agreement regarding ordinary wages.

On the morning of the 24th, the Civil Division 41 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Jeong Bong-gi) ruled partially in favor of the plaintiffs in the first trial of a wage claim lawsuit worth approximately 50.1 billion KRW filed by Kia workers including Mr. Kim against the company, approving about 26.9 billion KRW of the claimed amount.

The court stated, "The defendant's claim of expiration of the statute of limitations was judged to be an 'abuse of rights' and was rejected," and added, "The defendant's claim that there was an agreement not to sue based on the 2019 special agreement in this case is also not accepted."

Furthermore, the court ruled that based on the 2013 Supreme Court plenary session ruling that "bonuses correspond to ordinary wages," Kia Motors must pay part of the claimed amount. Regarding the workers' wage claims for the years 2011 to 2014, the court accepted the expanded claim only for specific plaintiffs who specified the claim amount.

Previously, the Kia Motors labor union filed wage claim lawsuits every three years starting from 2011. Considering the three-year statute of limitations for wage claims, lawsuits were filed in 2011, 2014, and 2017, each claiming wages for the past three years.

Since the number of plaintiffs reached a total of 27,451 and the lawsuit results were delayed, labor and management agreed that only some representatives would file the lawsuit, and the results would apply to all employees. The lawsuit involving 13 representatives proceeded relatively quickly, and the company lost the appeals in the first and second ordinary wage lawsuits.

Subsequently, in 2019, the company reached a special agreement with the union to pay about half of the claimed amount to workers who withdrew their lawsuits or submitted a non-prosecution agreement (agreeing not to raise civil or criminal objections). However, some workers continued the lawsuit, arguing that such an agreement was unfair.

During the trial process of this case, the company argued that the lawsuit was filed after the statute of limitations had expired and that there was no claim based on the non-prosecution agreement. The workers argued, "The Supreme Court's final ruling should apply, but the lawsuit filed by the representatives disappeared," and "We did not file lawsuits because we believed that the labor and management would apply the results of the representatives' lawsuits during the agreement process."

Meanwhile, among the first to third lawsuits filed by the union, the second was concluded by withdrawal, and the first was confirmed with a partial victory for some workers who did not agree to the special agreement continuing the lawsuit, with the ruling finalized in August 2020.

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