[Unofficial Korean-to-English translation provided by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

"YTN bidder Eugene Corp. controversially interferes with 1-Year-Old union," 23 November 2023

Eugene Corporation, which won the bidding for a 31% stake in YTN, a news channel, has been criticized by the Ministry of Employment and Labor for failing to comply with labor laws. The Ministry cited the company for obstructing the establishment of a labor-management council without justification and failing to pay various allowances to employees.

[...] In early March, the Ministry issued a corrective order to Eugene Corp. for not establishing a labor-management council. It concluded that Eugene Corp. had engaged in unfair labor management practices by enforcing the 'face-to-face method' of verifying the majority status of the union and deliberately avoiding the verification of the majority union so that the union cannot participate as a labor representative member in the council.

[...] In February, the Incheon Regional Labor Commission ruled that Eugene Corp. had engaged in unfair labor practices in a case where middle managers identified employees' union membership, the size of union in each area, and whether they will participate in strikes.

[...] Eugene Corp. was ordered to take corrective action for violating the Labor Standards Act by not paying or underpaying various allowances to employees, including unpaid annual leave (425 employees, 277 million won), underpaid overtime, night, and holiday pay (112 employees, 139 million won), and underpaid annual leave to retirees (56 employees, 37 million won).

In addition, the Labor Standards Act requires the consent of the worker to work at night and on holidays, but it was found that workers worked on holidays without consent and that workers worked overtime in excess of 12 hours per week, which is the most workers can work overtime with consent.

The company was ordered to correct the violation of the Severance Pay Act by underpaying severance pay (17 employees, 5.9 million won) without an agreement to delay payment and the violation of the Gender Equality Act by failing to provide sexual harassment prevention training to some employees last year when it was required to do so once a year.

[...] In response to the 'administrative citation for not establishing a labor-management council', Eugene Corp. responded to Media Today on the 22nd, saying, "We have never prevented or refused to establish a labor-management council, and we are currently in the process of legally organizing a labor-management council based on the Employee Participation Act."

[...] Regarding the non-payment of various allowances, Eugene Corp. responded, "We were instructed to modify the on-call positions to regular positions, which was not a matter of violation but a case of the interpretation of "work" and "on-call work", and for this purpose, in-depth discussions and authoritative interpretation were conducted by multiple labor inspectors." "The company has prepared an attendance management plan in accordance with the guidance of the Ministry of Employment and Labor and has been applying and faithfully implementing it since September 1," it said.

[...]