By Kim Rahn
An appellate court ruled Wednesday that Ssangyong Motor acted illegally when the firm pressured employees to retire by transferring them from clerical jobs to sales positions.
The Seoul High Court upheld a lower court ruling which determined that the transfer of two manager-level employees in such a way was unfair.
“Ssangyong’s personnel affairs department planned the transfer even before receiving in-house applications for the sales positions,” the court said in the ruling.
It said that before the transfer, the company recommended the two people retire voluntarily several times and since they were transferred, there have not been any additional transfers of clerical workers to sales jobs.
“It is highly likely that the transfers were aimed at pressuring the employees to quit their jobs by avoiding the strict conditions required for layoffs,” it said.
As the number of manager-level employees grew following restructuring in 2009, the automaker picked 11 workers including the two as “low-performers.” Six of them voluntarily left the company.
The firm then placed the rest on a waiting list in 2012, and dispatched the two to the sales department in February of 2013 without their consent. The company set 50 percent of their previous salaries as basic wages, and said they would receive incentives if they sold cars ― meaning they could maintain previous salaries only when they sold at least two cars per month.
The two could not sell cars, so appealed to the National Labor Relation Commission, which acknowledge the transfer unfair. Protesting the decision, Ssangyong Motor then filed the lawsuit.