Yusen Logistics Korea, a Japan-based logistics company operating in Korea, was ordered to correct the illegal use of dispatched workers that it should hire them directly, as the company used 17 dispatched workers whose usage in the logistics industry is banned by the 'Act on the Protection of Dispatched Workers'.
In relation to the correction order by the Ministry of Employment and Labor(MOEL), Yusen Logistics Korea is suspected that it demanded the dispatched workers concerned to agree to one-year fixed term contracts through one-on-one interviews for the purpose of weaseling out of open ended full-time employment contracts.
According to the Airport and Harbor Transport Division Yusen Union Local of the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union(KPTU), the MOEL confirmed the fact through its labor inspection in early this month that Yusen Logistics Korea illegally used 17 dispatched workers in the tasks of cargo loading and unloading, packaging, inspection, labeling, data processing and inventory management.
The MOEL ordered Yusen Logistics Korea to make direct employment contracts with 17 dispatched workers by February 6 and to submit a report to the MOEL on the follow-up actions taken by the company on the subject concerned. The Yusen Logistics Korea Union Local had submitted the letters of grievances concerning the illegal use of dispatched workers to the MOEL three times from September to November last year.
Since Yusen Logistics opened a corporate entity in Korea in 2003, according to the union local, it has used dispatched workers which accounted for some 30% of total employees. Nevertheless, the company has established a practice in converting the employment status of dispatched workers to full-time regular workers after 18 months. Such a practice was, however, suspended when a union was formed in April 2015.
At the moment, nearly 80 workers out of some 150 total employees have joined the union. As the union participation rate of workers at the distribution centers is high, the company has apparently stopped the regularization of dispatched workers used at the distribution centers for the fear of their joining the union.
reported by Yoon Ja-eun
translated by Kim Sung-jin