The Constitutional Court of Korea held in a unanimous decision that “the provision of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act, which requires that the establishment report be rejected in the case that a staff, other than a laborer, is a member of the union,” is constitutional (Constitutional Court Decision, 2011 Honba 53, March 29, 2012).
Upon the rejection of its establishment report for inclusion of a fired employee in 2009, the Korean Government Employees’ Union (KGEU) petitioned the Constitutional Court of Korea for a reversal of the rejection, and in doing so, claimed that the provision is unconstitutional.
The Constitutional Court of Korea ruled that “a labor union is an organization formed for the preservation of the laborer himself, and the fact that a labor union may be established by fulfilling the requisite conditions does not constitute ‘screening,’ which ‘permission’ involves.”
As such, the court ruled that “the system of rejecting the establishment report cannot be deemed as a ‘license system for association’ which is unconstitutional,” and that “the establishment of an insubstantial labor union should not be allowed simply upon the filing of a report to the government office.”
LEE & KO has successfully represented the Ministry of Employment and Labor in the above case to receive a judgment, which holds that the provision is constitutional.