'Illegal Activities at Construction Sites' Democratic Labor Union Construction Branch Executive Sent to Prosecution in Custody

The police have handed over to the prosecution a senior official of the National Construction Workers' Union (Geonseolnojo), affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (Minju-nojo), who is suspected of committing illegal acts at a construction site, while in custody.

According to the police on the 24th, the Violent Crime Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency sent to prosecution on the 22nd Woo Mo, the head of the Seo-nam branch of the Seoul-Gyeonggi Northern Construction Division of the Minju-nojo Construction Union, on charges of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes (joint extortion). Two union members who were also booked along with Woo were sent to prosecution without detention earlier on the 17th.

They are accused of forcing the hiring of affiliated union members or extorting money at construction sites over a two-year period starting from 2020. The amount of money extorted by demanding union full-time fees from construction companies is known to be approximately 130 million KRW.

The Violent Crime Investigation Unit of the Seoul Police Agency has been investigating since last year after detecting involvement of officials from the two major trade unions in allegations that the union forced the hiring of union members and demanded money from construction site personnel.

In January, the police conducted searches and seizures of the offices and mobile phones of the construction unions under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (Minju-nojo) and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (Hanguk-nojo), and on the 10th, they applied for arrest warrants for Woo and three other union members.

Accordingly, the Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant for Woo on the 14th. The warrants for the other two union members were dismissed, citing "insufficient necessity for detention considering the circumstances and roles in the crime."

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