[Defendant]
[Appellant] Defendant
[Defense Counsel] Attorney Cho Seong-rae
[Original Decision]
Busan High Court Decision 89No723, rendered November 8, 1989
[Order]
The original judgment is reversed, and the case is remanded to the Busan High Court.
[Reasoning]
1. We examine the first ground of appeal raised by the Defendant's counsel.
The lower court found the following facts and, on that basis, upheld the first instance judgment, which punished the Defendant pursuant to Article 19(2) and Article 5(1)(2) of the Act on Assembly and Demonstration (집회및시위에관한법률), as amended at the time of trial (promulgated as Act No. 4095 on March 29, 1989, and effective from April 30 of that year): that the Defendant organized the Masan-Changwon Trade Union Federation (hereinafter "the Machang Federation") and, as chairperson thereof, on March 24, 1983 [as stated in the original], from around 18:40 to 19:30, held a rally titled "Rally Against Union Suppression and for the Advancement of the 1989 Wage Struggle" at the so-called "Workers' Democracy Plaza" within the Masan Free Export Zone, attended by approximately 8,000 workers of the Machang Federation, after which the participants dispersed into groups of several hundred, occupied the roadway, marched in the streets, and threw Molotov cocktails, paving blocks, and other objects, causing burns to riot police officers and damaging paving blocks near the plaza, thereby hosting an assembly and demonstration that clearly constituted a group act of violence, destruction, arson, etc., posing a direct threat to public peace and order; that on April 9, 1989, from around 14:30 to 16:30, at the Democracy Plaza in front of Bongnim Hall of Changwon University, the Defendant held a rally titled "Rally to Crush the Suppression of the Hyundai Heavy Industries Union and to Resolve on the 1989 Wage Struggle," attended by approximately 800 workers and students of the Machang Federation, after which the assembled crowd advanced onto the street in front of the Bongnim Shopping Area near the main gate of the university, threw Molotov cocktails and paving blocks, completely burned one Pony passenger vehicle, and abducted a non-indicted person and two others, confining them in the student union building, thereby hosting an assembly and demonstration that clearly constituted a group act of violence, destruction, arson, etc., posing a direct threat to public peace and order; and that on April 24, 1989, from around 15:00 to 15:50, at the Workers' Democracy Plaza within the Masan Free Export Zone, the Defendant held a rally titled "Resolution for Wage Increase Struggle and Launch Ceremony of the Special Committee for Defense Industry Enterprises," attended by approximately 15,000 workers of the Machang Federation, after which about 7,000 of the assembled crowd dispersed into groups of 200 to 500 persons and, in the streets near police boxes and elsewhere, threw Molotov cocktails and paving blocks, burning or damaging parts of buildings and inflicting bruises on riot police officers, thereby hosting an assembly and demonstration that clearly constituted a group act of violence, destruction, arson, etc., posing a direct threat to public peace and order.
The argument on appeal is that the Defendant merely attended the above rallies and gave opening remarks, and did not in fact host said rallies, so that punishing the Defendant as the host constituted an illegality of finding facts without evidence and misunderstanding the legal doctrine of "host" as used in the above Act. However, according to the record, the Defendant confessed during the prosecutorial investigation that the Machang Federation, of which the Defendant was chairperson and representative, hosted the above rallies either alone or jointly with students of Changwon University, and the truthfulness of this confession is corroborated by other evidence adopted by the first instance court. Moreover, according to the evidence cited by the first instance court, it appears that the Machang Federation, as host, had planned in advance that immediately after each of the above rallies, participants would advance into the streets and engage in violent demonstrations, including throwing pre-prepared Molotov cocktails and the like.
Article 22 of the Act on Assembly and Demonstration provides that where an organization hosts an assembly or demonstration, its representative shall be deemed the host for purposes of applying the penal provisions of this Act. Therefore, the lower court's treatment of the Defendant as the host, applying the penal provisions accordingly, was justified, and there is no illegality as argued. This ground of appeal is without merit.
2. We examine the second and third grounds of appeal.
(1) In interpreting statutes such as the Trade Dispute Mediation Act (노동쟁의조정법), which regulate labor disputes between labor and management, in light of the legislative purpose of preventing or resolving disputes through fair mediation of labor relations, equity and fairness that does not favor either labor or management must be maintained, and restrictive or prohibitive provisions must be strictly construed, without excessive expansion or analogical interpretation.
Article 13-2 of the Trade Dispute Mediation Act prohibits third-party intervention by providing that, except for workers directly engaged in an employment relationship, the relevant labor union, the employer, or any other person having lawful authority under statute, no one shall engage in conduct manipulating, inciting, or obstructing the parties concerned with respect to a labor dispute action, or otherwise intervene for the purpose of influencing such action.
Although the concept of "intervention" prohibited by the above provision is, in itself, an abstract and broad concept of conduct, in light of the fact that the legislative purpose of this provision is to prevent a third party who is not a party to the labor relationship from provoking a dispute, or from expanding, radicalizing, suppressing, or terminating an ongoing dispute by manipulating, inciting, or obstructing the parties, thereby impeding the autonomous resolution of disputes between the parties, and in light of the fact that an act of intervention requires the purpose of manipulating, inciting, obstructing, or otherwise influencing the parties concerned with respect to the labor dispute action, the "intervention" prohibited by the above provision must be understood to mean an objective and specific act of involvement capable of influencing the labor dispute action by manipulating, inciting, obstructing, or engaging in other similar conduct toward the parties in connection with the labor dispute action.
(2) In this case, the lower court found the following facts: ① that around early March 1989, on an unspecified date, at the Changwon plant of Sesin Industrial Co., Ltd., the Defendant, for the purpose of influencing the labor dispute action of said company (which was then in dispute due to a strike and lockout), delivered an unspecified amount of dispute funds and ramen noodles to the union chairman and other union members who were staging a sit-in, thereby inducing them to engage in a vigorous struggle; and ② that between around 12:30 and 18:00 on April 10 of the same year, at the same location, the Defendant incited numerous union members, including the deputy head of the company's education and public relations department, to vigorously carry out the wage increase struggle without yielding to the employer's inducements or coercive measures. Based on these findings, the lower court upheld the first instance judgment, which found that the Defendant, as a third party, had intervened in the above company's labor dispute on each occasion, in violation of Article 13-2 of the Trade Dispute Mediation Act.
First, with respect to fact ①, the gist of this finding is that the Defendant delivered an unspecified amount of dispute funds and ramen noodles to the above company's union members at the aforementioned date and place, thereby inducing them to engage in a vigorous struggle. However, upon examination of the record, there is no evidence establishing that the Defendant engaged in any conduct other than delivering money and ramen noodles at the said date and place that induced a vigorous struggle. Accordingly, the lower court, in effect, determined that the act itself of delivering the money and ramen noodles constituted an act of inducing a vigorous struggle.
However, the mere delivery of money or goods of unspecified amount or quantity to a party to a labor dispute cannot, by itself, be concluded to constitute an act of inducing a vigorous struggle or otherwise an act of intervention capable of influencing the labor dispute action. Whether an act constitutes intervention must be determined by considering the amount or quantity of the money or goods and other relevant circumstances. The lower court, however, merely stated "dispute funds and ramen noodles of unspecified amount," without specifying the amount or quantity at all, and thus loosely found this to constitute an act of intervention; and upon examination of the record, there is no material whatsoever confirming how much money and how many ramen noodles the Defendant delivered at the aforementioned date and place.
Of course, it may be thought that the mere appearance of the Defendant, as chairperson of the Machang Federation, at the site of the dispute to deliver money or goods could, by itself, have an encouraging effect on the striking workers. However, as noted above, the third-party intervention prohibited by the Trade Dispute Mediation Act refers to an objective and specific act of involvement capable of influencing the labor dispute action. Therefore, if the Defendant engaged in no conduct other than delivering money or goods of unconfirmed amount or quantity, then imposing criminal liability for intervention on the Defendant solely on the ground that the Defendant wielded great influence among union members would constitute an unjustly expansive interpretation of the concept of intervention.
In this respect, the lower court's judgment involves an illegality affecting the judgment, arising from a misunderstanding of the legal doctrine concerning the prohibition of third-party intervention under the Trade Dispute Mediation Act.
Next, with respect to fact ②, upon examination of the evidence cited in the first instance judgment as upheld by the lower court, the lower court's determination finding the above fact is acceptable. Even though, under the proviso to Article 13-2 of the Trade Dispute Mediation Act, intervention by a national federation of trade unions, or by an industrial federation trade union to which the relevant trade union belongs, is permitted, it is clear from the record that the Defendant did not engage in the act of intervention in question on behalf of the National Metal Workers' Union as argued. Therefore, the argument that the illegality of the Defendant's act is negated pursuant to the above proviso is without merit.
(3) In addition, the argument contends that the provision prohibiting third-party intervention under Article 13-2 of the Trade Dispute Mediation Act is unconstitutional. However, this Court does not consider the above provision to be unconstitutional in the sense that it infringes upon the essential content of the three labor rights and freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution, or that it conflicts with the principle of equality and the principle of nulla poena sine lege, as argued.
(On this point, the Constitutional Court has also ruled that the provision is not unconstitutional.) The argument raised cannot be accepted.
4. In conclusion, the lower court's judgment cannot be upheld for the reasons stated in the determination of the second and third grounds of appeal above. Since the lower court treated the violation of the Trade Dispute Mediation Act and the violation of the Act on Assembly and Demonstration as concurrent crimes and imposed a single sentence, the entire lower court judgment is reversed and remanded, by the unanimous opinion of the participating Justices, as set forth in the Order.
Justice Kim Sang-won (Presiding Justice), Lee Hoi-chang, Bae Seok, Kim Ju-han