A court has suspended a decision by the National Labor Relations Commission that required POSCO to hold separate collective bargaining with unions representing subcontractor workers. It is the first time a court has granted a company's request to suspend such a decision in litigation over an operator's duty to bargain with subcontractor unions since the so-called Yellow Envelope Act took effect.
The Seoul Administrative Court's 14th administrative division, presided over by Chief Judge Lee Sang-deok, granted POSCO's request on the 18th to suspend the commission's review decision, according to legal sources.
The court found that POSCO could suffer harm that would be difficult to reverse if the commission's review decision remained in effect, and that there was an urgent need to prevent it. The decision's effect is therefore suspended until the main case is decided.
The dispute began on March 10, when the Federation of Korean Metal Workers' Trade Unions, affiliated with the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, demanded collective bargaining with POSCO. Two other subcontractor unions — the Korean Metal Workers' Union and the Korean Plant Construction Workers' Union, both affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions — then asked the labor commission to separate them into their own bargaining units.
The North Gyeongsang Regional Labor Relations Commission found that POSCO qualified as an employer under the Trade Union Act with respect to the subcontractor unions, and then concluded that the bargaining units needed to be separated. For the Korean Metal Workers' Union, it cited the potential for conflict between unions and the representation of differing interests. For the plant construction union, it cited differences in the nature of the work, including the characteristics of plant construction and its work methods.
POSCO appealed and sought a review by the national commission, but in June the commission upheld the regional body's finding. POSCO then filed a main suit seeking to overturn the commission's decision, along with a request last month to suspend it.
The Seoul Administrative Court had earlier rejected suspension requests filed by Joongheung Togen and Kukdong Engineering & Construction against the commission over review decisions ordering corrections to public notices of bargaining demands. That makes the POSCO case the first in which a company's suspension request has been granted in litigation related to the Yellow Envelope Act.
The ruling does not, however, settle whether the commission's decision was unlawful. Core issues — including whether POSCO holds employer status with respect to the subcontractor unions and whether the labor commission's decision to separate the bargaining units was lawful — will be addressed in the main case. The first hearing is set for Dec. 3.
