(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Ok Seong-gu = Since the implementation of the Yellow Envelope Act (Amended Trade Union Act) last March, there have been 460 workplaces where subcontractor unions have requested negotiations with main contractors, but actual negotiations have been concluded in only 3 places (0.65%).
In 238 workplaces, more than half of the total, negotiations are not progressing due to the union's suspension of procedures, and in the remaining workplaces, negotiations are not picking up speed as the Labor Relations Commission's judgment or retrial process continues.
According to data received from the Ministry of Employment and Labor by the office of People Power Party lawmaker Kim Wi-sang, a member of the Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee of the National Assembly on the 13th, as of the 1st of this month, there were 460 primary business sites that had received requests for negotiation regarding the Yellow Envelope Act.
By sector, there are 261 private workplaces and 199 public workplaces. The total number of union members is 185,235.
Among the 460 businesses that received a request for negotiation, 222 (48.3%) are in the process of proceeding.
Of these, 171 have proceeded with the unification of negotiation channels, and 142 (30.9%) have entered the main stage.
Of the 142 workplaces that have entered the negotiation stage, 81 are in the process of main negotiation, including face-to-face meetings. The remaining 61 companies have also entered the working-level negotiation stage to discuss negotiation agendas and schedules.
However, in reality, there were only three workplaces where negotiations between primary and subcontractors were fully concluded.
On the 10th of last month, the labor and management of Hyundai Steel, the main contractor, Hyundai Steel, and its four subsidiaries, Hyundai ITC, Hyundai IEC, Hyundai IMC, and Hyundai ISC, held a collective agreement signing ceremony at Hyundai Steel's Dangjin plant, making it the first case of a negotiated settlement since the implementation of the Yellow Envelope Act.
Afterwards, Hangang E-ampi Co., Ltd., a construction waste disposal company, signed a collective agreement with the subcontractor union. The Jeju Free International City Development Center (JDC) also became the first in the public sector by concluding a collective agreement with subcontractors.
Although there are cases of actual negotiation settlements like this, the pace is so slow that only 0.65% of all workplaces require it, and legal conflicts and confrontations on the ground continue.
In fact, 29 of the workplaces in progress have not even been able to complete basic procedures such as notice of negotiation, and 4 are considering notice of notice.
After the Labor Committee's judgment, there were quite a few places where the decision was not delivered (27 places), retrial was applied (3 places), and the Labor Committee's decision was in progress (5 places), and there were 12 workplaces where the usability itself was not recognized.
In the remaining 238 (51.7%) of the original contractor workplaces that failed to enter the negotiation process, negotiations are at a standstill because the union did not proceed with the procedure after requesting negotiation.
Regarding this, the Ministry of Labor explained that this is because the union is proceeding with the negotiation process for large construction companies relatively first, and the remaining workplaces are watching and proceeding with the process.
In the case of the public sector, most of the negotiation demands are in areas such as care and household waste, but the Ministry of Labor believes that the labor union is putting the labor committee process on hold because the care labor council is currently in progress.
An official from the Ministry of Labor emphasized, "We will provide guidance to both labor and management so that negotiations between the main and subcontractors can proceed as quickly as possible in accordance with the procedures stipulated in the union law, and we will do our best to promote negotiations between labor and management."
