[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] Hyundai Steel has secured a partial victory in its KRW 20 billion (approx. USD 14.4 million) damages lawsuit against a subcontracted workers’ union that occupied a control center at its Dangjin steel plant in South Korea in 2021.



According to the legal community on June 24, the Incheon District Court Civil Division 16 (Presiding Judge Park Sung-min) ruled in favor of Hyundai Steel in part, ordering the union and 180 individual workers affiliated with the Korea Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU) Hyundai Steel Subcontractors Branch to pay approximately KRW 590 million (around USD 420,000) in damages.



The court acknowledged that the prolonged occupation of the control center by the union led to additional labor costs due to overtime and holiday work by full-time staff. While Hyundai Steel claimed over KRW 11.8 billion in such excess labor expenses, the court concluded that some of these costs would have occurred under normal circumstances and thus limited the union’s liability to 50%.



The court dismissed Hyundai Steel’s claims regarding production disruption, additional outsourcing costs, demurrage charges, and security expenses, citing insufficient evidence and lack of a direct causal relationship with the union’s actions.



The occupation occurred over a 50-day period beginning on August 23, 2021, after Hyundai Steel announced plans to convert subcontractor workers to regular employees through a subsidiary—a move the union opposed, calling it unilateral. In protest, union members organized sit-ins and occupied the control center.



In response to the ruling, the union asserted that their actions were a reaction to Hyundai Steel’s alleged illegal subcontracting practices. “Our struggle was against Hyundai Steel’s unlawful actions. The company should withdraw the lawsuit and apologize,” the union said in a statement.

 

 

 

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