POSCO (005490.KS) has decided to directly hire approximately 7,000 subcontractor employees, but disputes continue over the actual implementation method, timing, and ramifications. Contrary to POSCO's intention to address the chronic subcontracting structure issues, signs of conflict are emerging between existing regular employees and directly hired workers, as well as between those converted and those excluded, raising concerns about intensifying "worker-versus-worker" tensions.
POSCO announced on the 8th a roadmap to directly hire approximately 7,000 subcontractor employees supporting operations at its Pohang and Gwangyang steelworks. Specific implementation measures are still being developed.
The 7,000 workers POSCO announced for direct hiring represent well over half of all subcontractor employees (approximately 10,000) across the company. This has led to assessments that POSCO made a bold decision to resolve its subcontracting relationships. Previously, POSCO had hired approximately 5,000 subcontractor employees engaged in maintenance work through a subsidiary.
POSCO plans to sequentially conduct hiring procedures for on-site workers who wish to join among the subcontractor operation support staff at both steelworks. Regarding specific hiring criteria, POSCO stated it would target on-site workers who perform "work directly related to operations at the actual site."
Rather than uniformly determining direct hiring targets, POSCO's policy is to make decisions based on whether the work is recognized as practically necessary at the steel production site.
Under this policy, office workers and transportation staff at subcontractors are likely to be excluded from this hiring round. POSCO stated it would "comprehensively review operational relevance, work experience, and employment stability aspects."
POSCO has been engaged in numerous illegal dispatch lawsuits with subcontracted workers for over a decade, with the Supreme Court repeatedly ruling in favor of the workers. There are predictions that if certain job categories are not included in the conversion during this direct hiring process, another wave of lawsuits could follow.
