80,000 subcontracted workers seek bargaining rights on 1st day of ‘yellow envelope law’

Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, a major umbrella labor group, hold a rally calling for better treatment for subcontracted workers in central Seoul, Tuesday. Newsis

The first day after Korea’s revised Trade Union Act — the so-called “yellow envelope law” — took effect saw more than 80,000 subcontracted workers at 221 parent companies and public institutions seek bargaining with what they consider their primary employers.

Officials at the Ministry of Employment and Labor told reporters Wednesday that, as of 8 p.m. the previous day, a total of 407 subcontractor unions and branches, representing about 81,600 workers, had filed bargaining requests with 143 private firms and 78 public entities.

Among the companies facing new union requests for talks are major employers such as Hyundai Motor Group, Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai Glovis, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hanwha Ocean, GM Korea, Yonsei University, CJ Logistics, POSCO, Coupang CLS, Korea Railroad Corp. and Incheon International Airport Corp.

Only five of them — Hanwha Ocean, POSCO, Coupang CLS, Hwaseong city government and Busan Transportation Corp. — have posted notices acknowledging the bargaining demands and begun the legal process to handle them, including deciding whether to unify bargaining channels for multiple unions.

“They took the first step toward win‑win bargaining,” a ministry official said, adding that a willingness to bargain means not rejecting the unions’ demands in principle and agreeing to follow the legal procedures.

Most of the demands came from unions affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), a powerful umbrella group with more than 1 million members, accounting for well over 90 percent of all cases.

In the public and service sectors, subcontracted workers include cleaners at universities, municipal waste workers and parcel delivery workers in logistics and postal operations.

Ministry officials said the tally is based on what local labor offices have been able to verify, meaning the actual number of bargaining demands could be higher than the current count, which is expected to continue to increase in the coming months.

“The era in which principal employers could dictate subcontracted workers’ conditions while dodging responsibility at the bargaining table is over,” the KCTU said in a statement. “Many, however, remain silent or continue to evade accountability. Any attempt to hollow out the intent of this law will not be tolerated.”

Subcontractor unions also filed 31 applications for separating bargaining units, a procedure that first requires the National Labor Relations Commission to decide whether the parent company qualifies as an employer under the revised law and, if so, how bargaining units should be divided based on conditions at each workplace, with the aim of securing “meaningful bargaining rights” for subcontracted workers.

Officials said companies may challenge employer status or the scope of bargaining matters, which will be disputed through the ministry’s advisory body, the commission and, eventually, the courts. To cope with an expected increase in caseload, the ministry has added dozens of staff members dedicated to the task nationwide.

For bargaining demands directed at public institutions, ministry officials promised to respond “responsibly,” engage fully with unions and build a leading labor relations model in the public sector that can ripple out into the private sector.

“I urge the labor side to guide its affiliates so bargaining proceeds in an orderly way … and I also ask management to recognize that win‑win relations between parent companies and subcontractors ultimately strengthen corporate competitiveness,” Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon said. “We will work to ensure the revised Trade Union Act takes root smoothly.”