Supreme Court "A chauffeur is also a worker under the union law...Collective bargaining is possible."

The Supreme Court's first ruling came out that chauffeur is also a worker under the Trade Union Act, which allows collective bargaining depending on the type of employment.

On the 27th of last month, the Supreme Court confirmed the court's defeat of the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by Busan's proxy driver A against driver B to confirm the absence of worker status.

The Supreme Court judged that there is a command and supervision relationship as B relies on income from driving work allocated from A or a partner company, and could have terminated the contract if the company unilaterally determined fees or business compliance matters and violated them.

Earlier, Company A signed a partnership contract with proxy drivers such as Mr. B and allocated driving requests to drivers through a mobile phone app that is used jointly with other suppliers.

Later, when the Busan proxy driver industry union, to which Mr. B joined, demanded collective bargaining in 2019, Company A rejected it and filed a lawsuit, saying that the proxy drivers were only business operators and not workers.

Both the first and second trials dismissed the claim, judging that Mr. B was a worker under the Trade Union Act, and Company A appealed, but the Supreme Court maintained the same conclusion after more than four years of hearing.