A dozen shopping outlets of the E.Land Group returned to normal operations on Monday, but the rift between labor and management of the fashion and retail giant is deepening.
Unionized workers at the group have been staging a vociferous protest against its layoffs of part-time and other temporary workers. Over the weekend they occupied 13 chain stores, mostly in Seoul and nearby cities in Gyeonggi Province, calling for better job security and the reinstatement of their fired coworkers. In response, the management locked out the stores.
The protesters, however, vacated all the outlets except two in western and southern Seoul, on Monday and declared the launch of a campaign to boycott E.Land products.
"The suspension of business caused 6.5 billion won ($ 6.9 million) in damages. The two outlets remain out of service," a company spokesman said.
The E.Land strike comes on the heels of a new labor law that took effect on July 1 in a country known for militant labor unions.
It is designed to protect roughly 5.5 million part-time and other temporary workers, 35 percent of the total workforce here, a legacy of the 1997-98 financial crisis that prompted companies to cut labor costs.
The legislation bars employers from discriminating against non-regular workers in working conditions, and imposes fines of up to 100 million won (US$110,000) on violators. Contract-based workers will automatically be granted regular status if they work for more than two years at the same company.
Companies with more than 300 employees and public agencies will be immediately subject to the new system, while smaller companies will have a few more years to prepare for it.
The E.Land Group has fired hundreds of part-time cashiers at its New Core department stores and Homeever outlets, previously Carrefour's local branches, and replaced them with outsourced workers.
Its labor union has described the move as an "abuse of the law."
The collective labor activity at E.Land has turned into political strife, as its union has been supported by the progressive Democratic Labor Party and the Korean Confederation of
Trade Unions, the country's largest umbrella labor group.
The case also highlights loopholes in the labor law, which is welcomed by neither labor nor management.
The law will be counterproductive and worsen the quality of employment because companies will prefer outsourcing to direct hiring to cut labor costs, employers and workers say.