Standards for Recognizing Accidents During Union Officers’ Union Activities as Work-Related Injuries
Bongsoo Jung (Korean labor attorney, KangNam Labor Law Firm)
I. General Criterial of Judgment
Injuries and diseases caused by union activities are not specified in the IACI Act. However, where union activities of full-time or part-time union officials are recognized as work according to criteria are limited to activities outlined in the collective agreement or activities approved by the employer. In addition, the court considers injury or disease during labor union activities as work-related in accordance with a wider application of the current criteria for work-related injuries.
The court has recognized as work-related accidents involving full-time and part-time union officials that occurred while such officials were engaged in union activities that met the following criteria. First, it involved full-time or part-time union officials using the paid time-off system. Second, the labor union's work was closely related to the company's labor management work, which means that employers allowed union officials to take charge of the work on behalf of their original work. Third, accidents that occur outside of working hours were work-related union activities.
However, the following are union activities by full-time or part-time union officials that are not regarded as work: first, activities unrelated to the work of the company concerned by an umbrella union; second, illegal labor union activities; and third, confrontational labor-management relations over a period of time from the existence of a labor dispute to conclusion of a collective agreement. Fourth, activities outside of working hours that are not specifically related to the employers' labor management work.
II. Criteria for Determining Whether Union Activities are Work Provided to the Employer
1. Union activities approved by the employer shall be those involving company labor management.
The fact that a full-time labor union official has been engaged in labor union activities without having to do the work originally outlined in the labor contract is due to a collective agreement or company consent. Labor union activities allow a full-time union official to engage in company labor management tasks, which can be seen as work provided to the company, instead of his original work. Thus, an illness or accident occurring to a full-time union official in the course of performing or its related labor union activities constitutes a work-related injury or disease.
2. Paid-time union activities approved by the employer are company labor management duties.
The same shall be deemed to apply to accidents in the course of union officials, who are not full-time union officials, performing or engaging in ordinary activities approved by the company.
3. Union activities shall be related to company labor management.
In the need to form smooth and stable labor-management relations, the full-time union official system allows union officials to take charge of labor union affairs instead of the work originally outlined in the labor contract, while still holding the status of employees. In order for a full-time union worker to be regarded as having a work-related accident under the IACI Act, the labor union activities performed by the full-time union official must be directly and specifically related to company labor management.
4. Union activities during which accidents or illness are not recognized as work-related
The following union activities are not considered work: (i) activities related to umbrella unions above or allied to the relevant union and unrelated to the employer's business; ② illegal union activities, and ③ activities that occur during the dispute stage in a conflict with the employer.
III. Cases related to Union Activities and Recognition of Occupational Accidents
1. Cases where Accidents during Labor Union Activities are Recognized as Work-related
(1) Accidents occurring when a union official was engaged in paid-time union activities.
“A delegate of Kumho Tire’s labor union participated in a meeting paid for by the company. The delegate applied for industrial accident compensation after losing his footing and breaking his leg while going down the stairs to get the report, which the Supreme Court acknowledged as an occupational accident. The union delegate was paid to attend the meeting, and the company also provided the meeting place. Furthermore, the agenda of the meeting was as closely related to the company's labor management as day-to-day union activities.” This is a case where an injury occurring to a non-full-time union official was recognized as work-related as he or she was engaged in union activities during working hours with company approval.
(2) A full-time union official had a heart attack on his way home from a union workshop.
“Upon conclusion of a collective agreement bargaining, a full-time union official attended a union workshop conducted as part of follow-up actions. This union official had a heart attack on his way home after the workshop. The series of processes in attending the union workshop can be considered company work.” The heart attack of a paid full-time union official while returning home after a union workshop was regarded as a work-related accident.
(3) An accident occurred while a full-time union leader was removing a banner used in a union campaign.
Prior to collective bargaining, a union official stepped on some plywood while removing a banner used in a union campaign. The plywood fell about 6.5 meters to the floor, during which the official was injured. In order to promote union member solidarity ahead of collective bargaining, the campaign was held between 18:00 and 21:00 after working hours, and was officially permitted by the company in advance and permitted use of the indoor gymnasium facilities on company premises." Although the accident occurred outside working hours, it was recognized as a work-related injury because it happened while handling the incidental tasks for union activities recognized by the company.
(4) A union official had an accident during a workshop hosted by the industrial labor union.
"The industrial union, like a company labor union, is a single-organization labor union which workers in the same industry directly join and, in principle, have the right to collectively bargain, apply for mediation, and enter into a dispute at an individual company, and so matters in the industrial labor union cannot be treated as umbrella union activities." Labor union work in the industrial union cannot be viewed as activities related to a higher umbrella union or allied labor unions unrelated to the employer's business." In fact, the labor union activities of this industrial union were regarded as activities to improve working conditions at this company because the members had joined the industrial labor union directly.
2. Cases where Accidents during Labor Union Activities are not Recognized as Work-related
(1) A full-time union official was injured during a union sports competition held after working hours.
"A full-time union official was injured during a sports competition, held after working hours, to promote union membership ahead of collective wage bargaining." This is a case where an incident during individual union activities after working hours without the employer's supervision was not recognized as a work-related accident.
(2) An accident involving a full-time union official occurred during the dispute stage of a conflict between labor and management.
"By the time of the accident, the company and the labor union had failed to reach a compromise despite several rounds of wage negotiations, and the labor union was at odds with management and in a state of labor dispute after reporting the dispute to the relevant agencies according to the dispute mediation procedures." This accident was not recognized as work-related because it occurred in the middle of conflict between the labor union and the company.
(3) An accident occurred where a full-time union official was injured during a soccer game organized by an umbrella union.
“A full-time union official participated in some sports organized by the umbrella labor union as a representative of the union. The company did not give its approval to the union official to participate in the sports in this case, and did not pay any expenses." In this case, incidents during activities of the umbrella union are not recognized as industrial accidents occurring during the activities of an upper level umbrella union, as the activities were not related to the improvement of working conditions for the labor union.
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