Park Soo-keun, chairman of the National Labor Relations Commission, said the Supreme Court's ruling on CJ Logistics' refusal to bargain collectively — the case that gave rise to the revised Trade Union Act, widely known as the "yellow envelope law" — was shaped by circumstances inside the court itself. "I think the situation at the Supreme Court had some influence," he said.
His remarks were read as an indirect suggestion that internal tensions at the Supreme Court, which has recently clashed with the executive branch over issues including the nomination of justices, may have affected the outcome of the case.
Park made the comments on the 16th during a parliamentary audit of agencies under the Ministry of Employment and Labor, conducted by the National Assembly's Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee. Responding to a question on the CJ Logistics case from Park Soo-min of the People Power Party, he said, "We respect the Supreme Court's ruling, but I believe the current situation at the Supreme Court had some influence."
In 2021, during Park's earlier term as chairman, the commission ruled that CJ Logistics had committed an unfair labor practice by refusing to bargain collectively with delivery drivers employed by its subcontracted agencies. CJ Logistics challenged the decision in an administrative lawsuit, but courts of first and second instance sided with the commission. In July this year, however, the Supreme Court overturned the lower court ruling and sent the case back to the Seoul High Court, saying the company could not be regarded as an employer bound by collective bargaining obligations under the former Trade Union Act because no employment contract relationship was established.
The case is widely cited as a key example that triggered debate on the revised Trade Union Act, which recognizes prime contractors as employers and allows them to bargain with subcontractors' unions. Behind the Supreme Court's decision to remand the CJ Logistics case lies a ruling handed down in May by the court's full bench in a case involving HD Hyundai Heavy Industries. In that decision, the full bench denied that prime contractors bore a collective bargaining obligation toward in-house subcontractors' unions, basing its reasoning on the former Trade Union Act before its revision. Applying that legal reasoning, the Supreme Court also reversed the lower court rulings in the CJ Logistics case, which involved similar issues.
People Power Party lawmakers voiced concerns during the session that the revised Trade Union Act is generating labor-management conflict and confusion at workplaces. Democratic Party lawmakers, by contrast, emphasized the law's purpose of improving poor working conditions for subcontracted workers. Park said he was concerned that unions would frequently file unfair labor practice complaints against prime contractors when bargaining breaks down, starting next year. "It is worth considering ways for such matters to be resolved through mediation by the labor relations commission before they go to court," he said.