Daejeon District Court's Seosan branch found Hyundai Steel not guilty in the first trial on charges of hiring substitute workers during a strike.

(Seosan = Yonhap News) Reporter Jeong Yun-deok = A court ruled that if a primary contractor company did not directly enter into labor contracts with workers of its partner companies before the revised Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act (Yellow Envelope Act) went into effect, it cannot be considered an employer.

On the 9th, Judge Kim Beom-jun, Criminal Division 1, Seosan Branch, Daejeon District Court, acquitted Hyundai Steel Corporation and its former CEO, Mr. A (65), who were indicted on charges of hiring replacement workers during the union strike.

Hyundai Steel and others were put on trial in January on charges of substituting about 1,500 workers to partner companies when Hyundai Steel's non-regular branch went on strike between August and October 2021.

Article 43, Paragraph 1 of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act stipulates that employers cannot hire or replace people unrelated to the business to perform work interrupted by industrial action.

Judge Kim said, “This is a case in which the pre-revision law must be applied,” and added, “In order for Hyundai Steel to be considered an employer of the workers of its partner companies at the time, it should have signed a direct labor contract with the workers, but it is difficult to say that this fact has been proven.”

Previously, Hyundai Steel argued during the trial that "the employers subject to the law as of 2021 were the partner companies to which the striking workers belonged, and Hyundai Steel and its CEO were not in that position."

The revised law, which expanded the scope of employers to those who are in a position to substantively and specifically control and determine working conditions even if they are not a party to a labor contract, went into effect on March 10 of this year.