Korea Contractors Association says safety obligations alone should not determine principal contractor's employer status

The Korea Contractors Association expressed concerns Monday that safety management measures should not be used as grounds for recognizing a principal contractor's employer status under the amended Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act, which expanded the definition of employer and took effect March 10.

In a position statement on the question of determining principal contractor employer status under the amended law, the association said a principal contractor's safety management obligations are "nothing more than unavoidable legal duties under the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Serious Accidents Punishment Act," adding that they "do not constitute the exercise of control or decision-making authority over working conditions."

The association said the amended law, which expanded the scope of employer, "was originally legislation aimed at resolving in-house subcontracting issues in the manufacturing sector, but is now being applied most broadly in the construction industry, causing severe labor-management conflict."

The Ministry of Employment and Labor said in April that fulfilling obligations as a contractor under the Occupational Safety and Health Act alone does not make a company an employer under the trade union law. Despite that guidance, most regional labor relations commissions have been using a principal contractor's safety obligation measures as grounds for recognizing employer status.

The association noted that the South Jeolla Province Labor Relations Commission had been the only body to rule that employer status cannot be recognized solely on the basis of a principal contractor's safety obligation measures — but that the National Labor Relations Commission recently reached an entirely different conclusion. "It is a logical contradiction to penalize law-abiding companies by treating compliance with safety obligations as the key basis for determining employer status," the association said.

In response, the association called for a reasonable application of the law that reflects the structural characteristics of the construction industry.

It urged the government and the National Assembly to "actively pursue institutional improvements, including legislative amendments, to ensure that fulfilling safety obligations under the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Serious Accidents Punishment Act alone does not result in a company being deemed an employer." It also asked labor relations commissions to "establish employer status determination criteria that reflect the characteristics of construction sites."

The association said it would "continue to work toward establishing a sound collective bargaining culture at construction sites through the reasonable operation of the amended trade union law."