Shinsegae Group under siege

Retail branch office raided; owner grilled for 12 hours

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Jung Yong-jin

Investigators raided E-mart headquarters in Seoul and other outlets of the firm to seize hard drives and key documents in a widening investigation of allegations that the retail unit of the Shinsegae Group illegally monitored unionized workers.

The raid, conducted by a district unit of the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s investigation department, came just a day after the prosecution grilled Jung Yong-jin, vice chairman of Shinsegae, for 12 hours Tuesday for allegedly illegal inter-affiliate transactions.

E-mart, the nation’s largest retailer, has been accused of having spied on its workers and using their resident registration numbers to check if they had joined a union.

“We dispatched investigators to E-mart outlets across the nation. We are going to summon officials for questioning after looking at the documents,” an official from the labor ministry said.

The ministry has been investigating the retail giant to check whether it has engaged in any illegal activities to keep its workers from joining a union. Civic groups have claimed that the firm carried out illegal surveillance in violation of the Personal Information Protection Act.

The widening investigation of Shinsegae is the latest in a series of harsh actions by law enforcement authorities against major conglomerates or chaebol.

President-elect Park Geun-hye, who takes office on Feb. 25, has repeatedly stressed the need for chaebol to live up to their social responsibilities, while vowing to help small- and medium-sized firms.

The investigation into the Shinsegae Group also comes at a time when the leaders of SK and Hanwha Group have been thrown into jail.

Previously, Shinsegae angered small neighborhood stores when it branched into the bakery and chicken outlet businesses. Conglomerates, which are wary of the policy direction of the upcoming government, are now watching how Shinsegae will be dealt with.

Civic groups have filed complaints with the prosecution against the retail chain for the alleged surveillance. They claimed that E-mart engaged in the illicit activities to repress unionists, noting that using other people’s personal data without their consent is illegal.

One group filed an earlier complaint against the group vice chairman and two other executives last October for allegedly being involved in illegal inter-affiliate trading, holding them responsible for lower profits, something Jung denied.