A Seoul court ruled in favor of Hyundai Motor management Friday in a lawsuit concerning the scope of "ordinary wages’’ filed by 23 union members at the company.
The Seoul Central District Court acknowledged bonuses paid to only two of them, who were from Hyundai Auto Service that was taken over by the automaker in 1999, as ordinary wages. Presiding Judge Ma Yong-joo, however, ruled that bonuses paid to the 21 other plaintiffs, who have been working at Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Precision, now Hyundai Mobis, cannot be seen as "regular.’’
The ruling stems from the fact that Hyundai Auto Service did not have a regulation that barred employees from receiving annual bonuses if they had worked less than 15 days. On the contrary, Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Precision had a regulation denying workers bonuses if they worked less than 15 days.
This means than regular bonuses cannot be recognized as ordinary wages if they lack regularity in payment.
The nation’s largest automaker heaved a sigh of relief with the ruling as the company has to pay only 10 billion won to about 9 percent of its 51,600 unionized workers if the ruling is upheld at subsequent appeals. Hyundai Motor had estimated that it would have to pay up to 5.3 trillion won in extra wages if the union won the case.
The ordinary wage issue has been a hot potato since December 2013 when the Supreme Court concluded that bonuses and other regular payments should be included in ordinary wages companies use as base salaries in calculating overtime pay, severance pay and other allowances.
Despite the Supreme Court ruling, however, there has been confusion in workplaces as judges have ruled differently on the regularity of bonuses. In October 2014, a Busan court ruled in favor of unionists at Renault Samsung, saying that bonuses were regular payments.
Now about 300 similar lawsuits are underway across the nation as wage schemes vary from company to company amid a lack of clear standards on ordinary wages. What’s clear is that the current situation in which the scope of the base salaries is determined through lawsuits must end as soon as possible.
That’s why the National Assembly should hurry to modify the relevant laws. But the reality is that legislators are neglecting their duties, alleging that there should be an agreement among labor, management and government before that.
A trilateral committee tasked with dealing with the ordinary wage issue has also sat on its hands, preoccupied with other labor issues, including temporary workers. In the middle of that, corporate investment has weakened and labor-management strife has worsened.
The Assembly ought to quicken its legislation process by reflecting the guidelines suggested by the Supreme Court through dialogue and compromise.