![[CAPTIONS]
The "Taste of Shinsegae" food curation zone inside Shinsegae Duty Free at Incheon International Airport's Terminal 1. Shinsegae DF - Seoul Economic Daily Society News from South Korea](https://wimg.sedaily.com/news/cms/2026/09/21/news-p.v1.20260512.d8d839fa899f44c7b9b1b27ca2c111ac_P1.jpg "Labor Panel Rejects Separate Bargaining Unit for Duty-Free Subcontracted Workers")
A request to separate bargaining units for subcontracted workers at Shinsegae Duty Free and Hotel Shilla has been turned down. The National Labor Relations Commission ruled that while the union's request itself was procedurally valid, there was no need to establish a separate bargaining unit.
The commission said on the 21st that in its review of the bargaining unit separation cases involving Shinsegae DF, the operator of Shinsegae Duty Free, and Hotel Shilla, it overturned the initial dismissal and denied the separation request.
The review came as procedures for in-store workers at department stores and duty-free shops to bargain with principal employers (department store and duty-free operators) moved forward under the revised Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act.
Earlier, the Seoul Regional Labor Relations Commission upheld a petition filed by the Department Store and Duty-Free Sales Service Workers' Union against Hotel Shilla, Shinsegae DF, Lotte Shopping and Hyundai Department Store over their failure to post notice of bargaining requests. The decision took into account that the working days and hours of sales staff at in-store tenants are determined by the business days and operating hours of the department stores and duty-free shops.
Procedures to unify the bargaining channel at Shinsegae DF and Hotel Shilla were then suspended after the Bluebell Korea union filed a request to separate bargaining units. Bargaining unit separation is a procedure under which bargaining units are divided according to certain requirements when multiple unions bargain at a single workplace.
In this review, the commission found that the union's filing of the separation request before the employer posted notice of the bargaining request was procedurally valid. Unlike the initial dismissal, it saw no problem with the timing of the filing itself. However, it said the need to form a separate bargaining unit was not recognized, and it ultimately denied the separation request.
