By Park Jin-hai
Hyundai Motor’s dispute with its subcontractors came to an end as the company agreed with its labor union Monday to hire all in-house subcontractors as permanent employees.
Under the tentative agreement, the company will expand the number of subcontractors turning into regular workers to 6,000, from the previously agreed upon 4, 000, by 2017.
In return, the subcontractors’ union will drop all the civil court cases that they have filed related to their job status.
Under the labor law, businesses that hire subcontracted workers for more than two years should give them full-time worker status.
Since 2010, when the nation's top court ruled in favor of one in-house subcontract worker at the company, other similar court cases followed, creating a constant source of management-labor conflict.
More than 1,200 other subcontract workers also filed a class action suit against the company in September 2010, with some taking a 296-day protest on top of a high-rise steel tower calling for their non-permanent status to be changed to that of regular employees.
“Following the agreement with the Jeonju and Asan plant unions to hire 4,000 subcontractors, the agreement this time is with the Ulsan plant workers, thus we are putting an end to the subcontractor issue,” said the company spokesman.
Hyundai also agreed that when the job vacancy arises through retirement, it will fill the void with a certain ratio of subcontracted workers beginning in 2018, meaning that Hyundai’s 6,800 subcontract workers will all be hired gradually.
“The agreement enables a virtuous cycle of workers gaining more chances for jobs and the company having a steady supply of skilled workers,” he added.
Hyundai’s decision this time has been regarded as an “advanced” one, because, unlike other companies who set contract-turned regular workers into separate status, at Hyundai they will not be different from other full-time employees.
The company also agreed to acknowledge a person’s career while he worked as contracted worker after he was made a regular worker.
The dramatic agreement was made thanks to a changed attitude from labor, said the company.
Hyundai’s Ulsan subcontractors, who did not come to the negotiation table from June of last year, returned to the table on Aug. 13.
“As a significant number of its members had already applied for full-time jobs, their sentiment has changed more to negotiation rather than protest. Given that the on-going suits take years but the rulings differ on individual cases, they seemed to come forward to the negotiation table for faster resolution,” said the official.