Supreme Court: "Asahi Glass Must Directly Employ Workers Dismissed by Subcontractors"

Subcontracted Workers Win Final Victory After 9 Years of Dismissal Dispute

Japan-based multinational company Asahi Glass has been ruled by the Supreme Court to directly employ workers dismissed from its subcontractors.

Subcontracted workers dismissed by Asahi Glass held a press conference shouting slogans after winning a labor status confirmation lawsuit at the Supreme Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the 11th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the legal community on the 11th, the Supreme Court's 3rd Division (Presiding Justice Eom Sang-pil) upheld the lower court ruling in the final appeal of a labor status confirmation lawsuit filed by 23 dismissed subcontractor workers against AGC Fine Techno, Asahi Glass's Korean subsidiary, stating that "the plaintiffs and the defendant are in a worker dispatch relationship."

AGC Fine Techno (Asahi Glass) is a manufacturer of glass for displays and had a subcontracting contract with GTS, a subcontractor, to handle part of the manufacturing process for TFT-LCD glass substrates. In June 2015, AGC Fine Techno terminated the subcontracting contract, citing the formation of a labor union by GTS workers as an issue. GTS dismissed 178 workers, leading to a labor dispute. The dismissed workers filed a lawsuit claiming that since they were under the direction and command of AGC Fine Techno, the company had an obligation to directly employ them under the Worker Dispatch Act.

The first and second trial courts ruled in favor of the workers. On this day, the Supreme Court also found no problem with the lower court's judgment.

The court stated, "The roles and authority of GTS's on-site managers were limited to conveying work instructions from AGC Fine Techno managers to the workers," and "GTS workers can be considered to have been substantially integrated into AGC Fine Techno's glass substrate manufacturing business."

Furthermore, "GTS hired and assigned workers to the site according to the personnel deployment plan decided by AGC Fine Techno, and the workers' working hours, break times, and vacations were influenced by AGC Fine Techno's production plans," adding, "Since its establishment, GTS only performed tasks subcontracted by AGC Fine Techno, and after the subcontracting contract was terminated, it closed down. It did not independently own the facilities and equipment necessary for production work."

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court also delivered rulings on related criminal and administrative cases on the same day.

The same division (Presiding Justice Oh Seok-jun) overturned the lower court's acquittal in the appeal of GTS, its CEO, and AGC Fine Techno, who were indicted for violating the Worker Dispatch Act, and remanded the case to the Daegu District Court.

However, the same division (Presiding Justice Noh Jeong-hee) upheld AGC Fine Techno's victory in a lawsuit filed against the Central Labor Relations Commission's relief decision. The ruling stated that AGC Fine Techno had justifiable reasons for terminating the subcontracting contract with GTS, and thus it was not an unfair labor practice.

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