[Plaintiffs, Appellants] Dongyang Special Express Labor Union and 5 other Plaintiffs
Plaintiffs' Litigation Representatives: Attorney Yoon Jong-hyun and 3 others
[Defendant, Appellee] Chairman of the National Labor Relations Commission (중앙노동위원회)
[Intervenors for the Defendant-Appellee] Dongyang Special Express Co., Ltd. and 5 others
Litigation Representative for the Intervenors for the Defendant: Attorney Ham Young-eop
[Judgment Below] Seoul High Court Judgment of August 22, 1991, Case No. 89Gu10229
[Order]
The portion of the judgment below concerning the arbitration review decision (중재재심결정) regarding the monthly transportation revenue standard amount and the restriction on bonus payments, in which the Plaintiffs lost, is reversed, and this portion of the case is remanded to the Seoul High Court.
The Plaintiffs' remaining appeal is dismissed, and the costs of the appeal relating to the dismissed portion shall be borne by the Plaintiffs.
[Reasoning]
1. We examine the first ground of appeal raised by the Plaintiffs' litigation representatives.
According to the reasoning of the judgment below, the court below found that the meaning of the phrase "other matters shall be governed by the 1989 wage agreement" set forth in Article 5 of the 1990 wage agreement between the 245 taxi transportation business labor unions located in Seoul Special Metropolitan City, including the Plaintiffs, and their employer side, should be interpreted as meaning that, with respect to such other matters, the content of the 1989 wage agreement as arbitrated by the Seoul Special Metropolitan City Regional Labor Relations Commission and the Defendant shall govern. Moreover, the court below found that, in concluding the 1990 wage agreement on May 21, 1990, between the aforementioned labor unions and the employer side, a basic wage agreement (the "Article 5 agreement" referred to by the Plaintiffs refers to this basic agreement) was drafted concerning matters such as the rate of increase of the basic wage and the conditions for payment of bonuses, and at the same time, based on the content of that agreement, a separate wage agreement containing specific details was drafted. According to that wage agreement, it can be found that detailed and specific agreed contents exist regarding working conditions and working arrangements, including working hours, number of working days, basic wage, maximum driving distance, performance-based pay payment standards, and restrictions on bonus payments, which are the matters disputed by the Plaintiffs in this lawsuit. Accordingly, the court below determined that the Plaintiffs' argument that this lawsuit has a legal interest because the outcome of this lawsuit could affect the aforementioned 1990 wage agreement is without merit.
Upon examination of the record, the above determination of the court below is justified, and there is no illegality therein, as argued in the grounds of appeal, in misinterpreting Article 5 of the aforementioned wage agreement or misunderstanding the legal principles concerning the interest in bringing suit. Therefore, this point of the grounds of appeal is without merit.
2. We examine the second ground of appeal.
According to the reasoning of the judgment below, the court below found, based on the evidence it cited, the following facts: that when the 1989 wage negotiations between the aforementioned labor unions and their employer side failed to reach a settlement, the Seoul Special Metropolitan City Regional Labor Relations Commission, upon the arbitration request of the employer side, issued an arbitration award (중재재정) on May 6, 1989, arbitrating a collective agreement concerning the aforementioned wage agreement with a validity period from April 1, 1989 to March 31, 1990; and that, following the aforementioned labor unions' filing of a request for review against the arbitration award, the Defendant, on August 16, 1989, issued an arbitration review decision (중재재심결정) that revoked and modified part of the content of the arbitration award concerning working hours, number of working days, classification of wages, basic wage, and monthly and annual paid leave, while dismissing the request for review with respect to the remaining portions.
The court below then determined as follows: Since Article 39, Paragraph 1 of the Labor Dispute Mediation Act (노동쟁의조정법) provides that an arbitration award or review decision of a labor relations commission shall not be suspended in its effect by the filing of a request for review with the National Labor Relations Commission or the filing of an administrative litigation pursuant to Article 38 of the same Act, the collective agreement between the taxi transportation business labor unions, including the Plaintiffs, and the taxi transportation companies, including the Intervenors for the Defendant, based on the aforementioned arbitration award, remained validly in effect—there being no special circumstances shown in this case, such as the suspension of its execution or effect by a stay-of-execution decision under the Administrative Litigation Act (행정소송법)—until it lost its effect upon the expiration of its validity period on March 31, 1990. Since the aforementioned arbitration review decision thus lost its effect due to the expiration of the validity period, the court below determined that the Plaintiffs no longer had a legal interest in seeking the revocation of that decision, and accordingly dismissed all of the Plaintiffs' claims in this case.
However, even where an administrative disposition has a fixed period of validity as determined by statute or by the disposition itself, and the disposition's effect has been lost due to the expiration of that period, if there are special circumstances such that some legal interest is being infringed due to the disposition's outward continuation of existence even after the expiration of the period, the legal interest in seeking the revocation of that disposition should not be denied.
Examining the content of the arbitration review decision in this case, with respect to the portions of the review decision concerning working hours and number of working days under the alternate-day work system, and the standard daily working hours used as the basis for calculating the basic wage—matters which the Plaintiffs dispute as erroneous—it is difficult to find special circumstances warranting recognition of a legal interest in seeking their revocation now that the validity period has expired. However, among the matters subject to the arbitration review decision, with respect to the portions concerning the monthly transportation revenue standard amount and the restriction on bonus payments, if the arbitration review decision were revoked and the content of the agreement thereby changed, there would arise the possibility of subsequently claiming, even after the fact, the difference in wages that went unpaid during the period covered by the now-expired arbitration review decision. The benefit to the workers arising from this is not a mere factual benefit but should be regarded as a legal interest grounded in, among other things, the right to collective bargaining. Therefore, it must be held that there exists a legal interest in seeking the revocation of the arbitration review decision with respect to the monthly transportation revenue standard amount and the restriction on bonus payments.
The court below, having overlooked these circumstances and having determined, solely on the ground that the validity period had expired, that there was no legal interest in seeking the revocation of the arbitration review decision even with respect to the matters pointed out above, committed an error affecting the judgment by misunderstanding the legal principles concerning the interest in bringing a revocation suit. Therefore, this point of the grounds of appeal is well-founded.
3. Accordingly, the portion of the judgment below concerning the arbitration review decision regarding the monthly transportation revenue standard amount and the restriction on bonus payments, in which the Plaintiffs lost, is reversed, and this portion of the case is remanded to the court below for further examination and determination. The Plaintiffs' remaining appeal is dismissed, and the costs of the appeal relating to the dismissed portion shall be borne by the losing party. This judgment is rendered as set forth in the Order by the unanimous opinion of the participating Justices.
Presiding Justice Bae Man-un
Justice Lee Hoi-chang
Justice Kim Seok-su