Four subcontractor unions at public institutions — the first to have their client organizations recognized as employers under the revised Trade Union Act, commonly known as the "Yellow Envelope Act" — claimed that the client firms deeply intervened in their working conditions. Given that public institutions operate in more standardized formats than private companies, a significant number of additional public institutions are expected to be found to hold employer status over their subcontracted workers.
The Seoul Economic Daily obtained petitions for remedial action filed with the South Chungcheong Regional Labor Relations Commission by subcontractor (subsidiary) unions of the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS), the Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO), and the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS). The petitions contained detailed arguments that the four client institutions were the de facto employers of these unions. The South Chungcheong commission recognized employer status of the client firms in all four cases.
