215 POSCO Subcontractor Employees Win Labor Dispatch Lawsuit

215 employees of POSCO subcontractors have ultimately won a lawsuit confirming their status as regular workers, as courts recognized they had been working under POSCO's direct command and supervision for over two years. On the 16th, Division 1 of the Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling of victory for these 215 individuals in the final appeal of two lawsuits filed by 223 POSCO subcontractor employees seeking confirmation of their employee status.

They were responsible for tasks such as ship voltage management, raw material unloading, rolling processes, roll processing, and cold-rolled product packaging at the Pohang and Gwangyang steelworks. The court ruled that POSCO had effectively entered into a dispatch agreement with its subcontractors and utilized these workers beyond the statutory two-year limit.

Of the 215 individuals who won this ruling, 8 will be granted the status of POSCO headquarters employees. POSCO stated it will proceed with follow-up measures for the successful employees according to legal procedures.

POSCO explained that it plans to directly hire approximately 7,000 employees from partner companies who perform support roles in steel production processes, as well as employees working in similar processes, not limited to the 215 who won this lawsuit.

Meanwhile, this lawsuit is part of a series of employee status confirmation lawsuits filed by POSCO subcontractor employees that began in 2011, with a total of 933 workers having filed seven separate lawsuits.