[Plaintiff, Appellee] Namhae Chemical Corporation (Attorney Yeo Sang-gyu, counsel for the plaintiff)
[Defendant, Appellant] Chairman of the National Labor Relations Commission
[Intervenor for the Defendant] Jeonnam Nambu Port Transport Workers' Union, Federation of Korean Port Transport Workers' Unions (formerly named Yeosu Port Transport Workers' Union, Federation of Korean Port Transport Workers' Unions) (Attorney Kwak Chang-uk, counsel for the intervenor)
[Judgment Below] Seoul High Court Judgment 94Gu8497 dated January 27, 1995
[Order]
All appeals are dismissed. Of the costs of appeal, the portion arising from the intervention shall be borne by the Intervenor for the Defendant, and the remainder shall be borne by the Defendant.
[Reasoning]
The grounds of appeal raised by the Defendant and the Intervenor for the Defendant are examined together.
1. The main text of Article 33, Paragraph 1 of the Trade Union Act (노동조합법) provides that "the representative of a trade union or a person delegated by the trade union has the authority to negotiate with the employer or employer's association on behalf of the trade union or its members regarding the conclusion of a collective agreement and other matters." Article 39, Item 3 of the same Act designates as one form of unfair labor practice an employer's refusal or neglect, without justifiable reason, to conclude a collective agreement or otherwise engage in collective bargaining with the representative of a trade union or a person delegated by the trade union, thereby defining the employer as the counterpart bargaining party to the trade union. The term "employer" under these provisions refers to a person who has a relationship of employment and subordination with a worker, that is, a person who has entered into an express or implied employment contract relationship with a worker for the purpose of directing and supervising the worker, receiving labor from the worker, and paying wages in return therefor (see this Court's Decision 85Nu856 dated December 23, 1986, among others).
2. According to the facts lawfully found by the court below and the record, the Intervenor for the Defendant, the Jeonnam Nambu Port Transport Workers' Union, Federation of Korean Port Transport Workers' Unions {originally named the Yeosu Port Transport Workers' Union, Federation of Korean Port Transport Workers' Unions, but its name was changed as above (see the Report of Change in Matters Reported for Establishment of Trade Union at page 385 of the record, and the certified copy of the corporate register at page 601 of the record); hereinafter referred to as the "Intervenor Union"}, is a regional single-unit trade union under the Federation of Korean Port Transport Workers' Unions (hereinafter the "Federation") (see the above report of change and the collective agreements at Exhibit 6 of Plaintiff's evidence and Exhibit 4 of Defendant's evidence, respectively). The Intervenor Union is a trade union organized with members consisting of workers engaged in the stevedoring business, transportation business, storage business, and related ancillary or other businesses concerning ports, railways, land, and marine/agricultural products in the Yeosu/Yeocheon (Gwangyang Port Nakpo Wharf) area (see the trade union bylaws at page 386 et seq. of the record). Pursuant to Article 17, Paragraph 1 of the Act on Employment Security and Employment Promotion (직업안정및고용촉진에관한법률) (prior to its full amendment by Act No. 4733, the Employment Security Act (직업안정법), on January 7, 1994), the Intervenor Union obtained a permit for a labor supply business from March 1, 1991 to February 28, 1994 (see Defendant's Exhibit 6; according to the labor supply business permit certificate attached at page 393 of the record, the permit period was subsequently renewed from March 1, 1994 to February 28, 1997). It is found that the Intervenor Union entered into labor supply contracts, under the name of service contracts or otherwise, with entities that obtained a general port stevedoring business license under the Port Transportation Business Act (항만운송사업법) and operated a general port stevedoring business, and dispatched its member workers as laborers to worksites designated by such entities (either the entity's own worksite or another specific worksite for which the entity had entered into a work contract, stevedoring transport contract, etc.) to perform cargo-handling and other work (see Exhibits 9-1 through 9-6, Exhibit 10, and Exhibit 11-3 of Plaintiff's evidence, and the testimony of witnesses Nonparty 1, Nonparty 2, and Nonparty 3 before the court below, among others).
Meanwhile, it is found that the Plaintiff, whose main business is importing raw materials such as phosphate rock, solid sulfur, and potassium chloride, which are raw materials for basic chemical products and fertilizer, manufacturing products such as fertilizer therefrom, supplying part of such products to domestic farming households, and exporting the remainder abroad, obtained around December 1976 a limited stevedoring business license under Article 4, Paragraph 3 of the Port Transportation Business Act (항만운송사업법) in order to perform the unloading of imported raw materials and the loading of manufactured products using port facilities (hereinafter "unloading/loading operations"), as well as the loading and unloading and stacking of manufactured products within the Plaintiff Company's warehouse (hereinafter "in-warehouse operations"), and, in connection with the foregoing operations, the collection of spilled cargo and cleaning of the interior of vessels (hereinafter "ancillary operations"). The above unloading/loading operations were performed using unloaders and loaders installed by the Plaintiff. The above in-warehouse operations were performed, from around 1976, pursuant to a subcontract entered into with Nonparty Korea Express Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "Korea Express"), which held a general stevedoring business license, whereby Korea Express received supply of member workers as laborers from the Intervenor Union and performed the operations; and after around March 9, 1989, when Nonparty Yeocheon Port Transport Workers' Union separated and became independent from the Intervenor Union, Korea Express received supply of member workers as laborers from the Yeocheon Port Transport Workers' Union and performed the operations. The above ancillary operations were likewise performed pursuant to a subcontract entered into with Korea Express around December 1976, whereby Korea Express received supply of member workers as laborers from the Intervenor Union and performed the operations; however, when the Intervenor Union ceased supplying its member workers as laborers to Korea Express around November 1977 and Korea Express notified the Plaintiff that it was unable to perform the said operations, the Plaintiff, from around January 1978, mobilized some workers from Nonparty Daeryuk Enterprise Co., Ltd., a cooperating company of the Plaintiff Company engaged in product packaging, to perform the said operations; and from February 1, 1994, the Plaintiff hired as its own employees the workers of Daeryuk Enterprise who had been performing the said operations, and thereafter performed the ancillary operations through such employees.
Given the above facts, it cannot be said that the Plaintiff has an express or implied employment contract relationship with the members of the Intervenor Union, and there is no material to find that a relationship of employment and subordination exists between the Plaintiff and such members. Accordingly, the Plaintiff does not hold the status of an employer under Article 33, Paragraph 1, and Article 39 of the Trade Union Act (노동조합법) with respect to the members of the Intervenor Union (see this Court's Decision 85Nu856, supra; Decision 92Nu13011 dated November 23, 1993, among others).
Even if, as the Defendant argues, the Plaintiff joined, on March 12, 1984, the Korea Port Transportation Association (hereinafter the "Association"), a corporate body established on July 1, 1978 with members consisting of business operators holding port stevedoring business licenses under the Port Transportation Business Act (항만운송사업법), and became a member thereof; and even if, under the Association's articles of incorporation, one of the Association's projects is stipulated as "collective bargaining between labor and management and conclusion of agreements on wages and welfare"; and even if the Association has, since 1981, entered into collective agreements with the Federation, and Article 4, Paragraph 1 of the 1993 collective agreement (see Plaintiff's Exhibit 6) concluded between the Association and the Federation provides that "the right to employ regular and daily workers shall be held by member companies of the Association, provided that this shall not apply to workers supplied by the Federation," and Paragraph 2 of the same Article provides that "with respect to work falling within the Federation's work jurisdiction, employment opportunities shall not be given to any person other than members of the Federation" — nevertheless, these provisions of the collective agreement cannot be construed as prohibiting member companies of the Association from performing stevedoring operations using their own personnel or labor force, requiring instead that only the aforementioned union members be utilized for the entirety of the stevedoring operations of member companies of the Association. Rather, these provisions mean that, in cases where a member company finds it difficult or impossible to perform stevedoring operations using only its own personnel or labor force and thus needs to utilize external personnel or labor force other than its own to carry out such operations, and accordingly enters into a labor supply contract to receive supply of members belonging to a single-unit trade union under the Federation, the Federation or its affiliated single-unit trade union thereby comes to hold a concrete work jurisdiction, such that the authority to hire, select, and replace the workers supplied to the worksite of the member company belongs not to the member company receiving the supply of workers, but to the Federation or its affiliated single-unit trade union; and further, that with respect to work over which the Federation or its affiliated single-unit trade union has thus come to hold concrete work jurisdiction, the member company shall not utilize workers other than members of the Federation to perform such work so as to obstruct the employment opportunities of such members. These provisions amount to no more than that. Therefore, the Federation or its affiliated single-unit trade union cannot, on the basis of these provisions alone, assert a right to supply its member workers for stevedoring operations to a member company of the Association without entering into such a concrete labor supply contract as described above, nor can it be said that a relationship of employment and subordination is thereby established between the members of the single-unit trade union affiliated with the Federation and the member company of the Association.
Furthermore, it cannot be said, based solely on the other grounds asserted in the argument or the provisions of the collective agreement relied upon in the argument, that a relationship of employment and subordination was established between the Plaintiff and the members of the Intervenor Union.
Accordingly, the Plaintiff does not hold the status of an employer under Article 33, Paragraph 1, and Article 39 of the Trade Union Act (노동조합법) with respect to the members of the Intervenor Union, and it likewise cannot be said that the Plaintiff bears a duty of collective bargaining toward the Intervenor Union on the basis of the aforesaid provisions of the collective agreement. Therefore, even if the Plaintiff refused the Intervenor Union's demand for collective bargaining regarding stevedoring operations, such refusal does not constitute an unfair labor practice. The judgment below, having reached the same conclusion, is correct, and it cannot be said that there is any illegality therein as argued in the grounds of appeal.
3. Accordingly, the appeals are dismissed, and the costs of appeal are to be borne by the Defendant and the Intervenor for the Defendant, who lost the appeals. This judgment is rendered as set forth in the Order, upon the unanimous agreement of the participating Justices.
Justice Kim Hyung-seon (Presiding Justice), Park Man-ho (Justice in charge), Park Jun-seo, Lee Yong-hoon