Four Labor Ministry Officials Disciplined Over Meal With Coupang Executive

Four regional labor office employees who had lunch with an executive of Coupang Logistics Services (CLS), Coupang's delivery subsidiary, were disciplined last year, it has been belatedly confirmed.

According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor and labor circles on the 11th, a division chief and three labor inspectors from the Industrial Accident Prevention and Guidance Division at Seoul Regional Office A, who had a private lunch with a former labor ministry official now working as a CLS executive in February last year, all received disciplinary action including reprimands. The ministry reportedly made the disciplinary decision after comprehensively considering the Public Officials' Conflict of Interest Prevention Act and other regulations. The ministry determined that their private meeting with a CLS executive, whose company falls under their jurisdiction, posed a potential conflict of interest.

However, critics inside and outside the ministry point out that the disciplinary measures were somewhat severe given that the matter involved "merely a meal." The meal cost per inspector reportedly did not exceed 30,000 won, the limit for meals under the Anti-Solicitation Act. In such cases, other ministries often issue informal warnings or cautions instead of formal discipline.

The stronger-than-expected disciplinary action is interpreted as reflecting the ministry's determination to preempt accusations of "favoritism toward Coupang." In May last year, it was revealed that five grade 5-6 ministry officials had joined CLS after retirement. When this wave of job changes occurred shortly after the National Assembly's Coupang hearing in January of that year, which intensively scrutinized issues of late-night work and death from overwork, labor groups criticized Coupang for potentially using former officials to weaken the ministry's oversight capacity.

Regarding this issue, Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon delivered a stern warning at the National Assembly's Coupang hearing in December last year, stating in response to questions about the staff departures: "I instructed (ministry employees) that if they contact Coupang's government relations personnel, they should expect to be ruined."

The ministry, which has launched an investigation into allegations of Coupang concealing industrial accidents and engaging in illegal dispatch of workers, has made clear its commitment to avoid controversy over fairness. Recently, it removed from duty a division chief at Regional Office B who had met with a Coupang executive during a 2020 labor inspection of Coupang. Additionally, the head of Regional Office C, who handled Coupang's case involving unpaid severance for daily workers in 2023, was also removed from duty. Furthermore, the ministry plans to require labor inspectors moving to private companies to undergo employment screening comparable to that applied to high-ranking public officials.