About 40 days after the Yellow Envelope Law (amendments to Articles 2 and 3 of the Trade Union Act) took effect, the tragedy that industry had feared has become reality. In front of convenience store chain CU's logistics center in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, members of the Cargo Truckers Solidarity Division under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) were blocking vehicles while demanding negotiations with the primary contractor, when a tragic accident killed one person and injured two others. The fatal incident is serious because it stems from the combination of structural loopholes in the Yellow Envelope Law and the labor sector's approach to collective action. Another problem is that the cargo union has not even initiated the negotiation procedures with the primary contractor that the Yellow Envelope Law requires.
The union members are delivery drivers transporting goods supplied to BGF Retail, the operator of CU. They are classified as "individual business operators" belonging to partner transport companies contracted with individual logistics centers, making the Cargo Truckers Solidarity Division an extralegal union. Nevertheless, they launched a strike, claiming that BGF Retail holds effective managerial authority. While it is clear that the cargo industry has been struggling recently due to high fuel prices, it is difficult to accept that the union resorted to direct action without even going through the procedures of registering as a labor union or having employer status recognized. As a result, the concern that the Yellow Envelope Law — by broadening the scope of negotiations to include subcontractors and specially employed workers — would allow the labor sector to first pressure management through collective action and then establish employer status as a fait accompli has materialized.
As of the 9th of this month, one month after the Yellow Envelope Law took effect, 1,011 subcontractor unions have demanded negotiations from 372 primary contractor workplaces. Accordingly, when Labor Relations Commission rulings on employer status begin pouring out from the middle of next month, industrial sites across the country could be thrown into the chaos of a "May spring labor offensive." Judging from the KCTU's statement on the 21st that "CU denied its responsibility as an employer and pushed ahead with diverting shipments, driving a worker to his death," there is a strong likelihood that this incident will be carried into the May 1 Labor Day rally and the spring labor offensive.
The side effects of the Yellow Envelope Law have become so apparent that not only industry but even the prime minister has mentioned the need to supplement the scope of the employer definition. The government must no longer hide behind ambiguous legal provisions. The National Assembly should also hurry to enact comprehensive supplementary legislation for the Yellow Envelope Law, more clearly organizing the criteria for recognizing employer status, the scope of the primary contractor's effective control, and the requirements for negotiation procedures and initiating industrial action. Only then can we prevent the recurrence of such unfortunate incidents and allow the Yellow Envelope Law to establish itself as a system that maintains the balance between labor rights and industrial workplaces.
