Since the implementation of the Yellow Envelope Law (amendments to Articles 2 and 3 of the Labor Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act) in March, 460 workplaces have requested negotiations with primary contractors, but only 0.65% have reached a conclusion.
According to data received by Kim Wi-sang, a member of the National Assembly's Climate, Energy, Environment, and Labor Committee, from the Ministry of Employment and Labor, as of October 1, there are a total of 460 primary contractors (261 private and 199 public) that have received negotiation requests related to the Yellow Envelope Law, involving a total of 185,235 union members.
However, more than half of the requested workplaces, 238 (51.7%), have stalled negotiations because the unions have not proceeded with the necessary procedures after making their requests.
The Ministry of Labor analyzed that unions are prioritizing negotiations with large construction companies and monitoring the situation of remaining workplaces, while in the public sector, discussions are ongoing in areas such as care and waste management, leading to a suspension of their own labor commission procedures.
Among the remaining 222 workplaces (48.3%) where procedures are ongoing, the situation is similar. Of these, 171 have undergone the process of unifying negotiation channels, with 142 (30.9%) entering the main negotiation phase. Specifically, formal negotiations are taking place in 81 locations, while practical negotiations are ongoing in 61.
However, various legal conflicts and procedural delays continue on-site, including the failure to deliver decisions after labor commission judgments (27 cases), denial of primary contractor status (12 cases), failure to announce negotiations (29 cases), and requests for retrials (3 cases).
Despite the slow progress, only three negotiations have been fully concluded to date.
The first concluded case occurred on September 10 at Hyundai Steel's Dangjin plant, where Hyundai Steel and four subsidiaries (Hyundai ITC, Hyundai IEC, Hyundai IMC, and Hyundai ISC) signed a collective agreement. Following that, Han River AMP, a construction waste management company, became the first mid-sized enterprise to sign a collective agreement with a subcontractor union, demonstrating the potential for the spread of the primary-subcontractor negotiation model. In the public sector, the Jeju International Free City Development Center (JDC) recorded its first concluded case.
A Ministry of Labor official stated, "We will guide both labor and management to ensure that primary-subcontractor negotiations proceed promptly according to labor law procedures and will provide maximum support to facilitate negotiations between the two parties."
* This article has been translated by AI.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.