Five executives, including GM Korea CEO Kaher Kazem, have been put on trial on charges of hiring 1,700 workers who were illegally dispatched from partner companies.
The Public Investigation Department of the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office and the Criminal Affairs Department 4 of the Changwon District Prosecutors' Office said on July 21 that they have indicted 28 people, including five GM Korea executives, including Kazem, and 23 heads of partner companies, without detention on charges of violating the law on the protection of dispatched workers. The prosecution also indicted the GM Korea corporation.
Five GM Korea executives, including Kazem, are suspected of illegally hiring 1,719 workers dispatched from 24 suppliers from September 1, 2017 to December 31, last year at GM Korea's Bupyeong, Changwon and Gunsan plants in Korea. Kazem has been the CEO since September 2017.
The operators of partner companies indicted along with Kazem are suspected of illegally sending workers to Bupyeong, Changwon and Gunsan factories without obtaining permission from the Minister of Employment and Labor for the same period.
According to the prosecution, the Bupyeong plant in Incheon illegally hired 797 workers dispatched from 14 suppliers, the Changwon plant; 774 workers from eight suppliers, and the Gunsan plant; 148 workers from two suppliers. Workers belonging to the partner companies were in charge of "direct production processes" such as manufacturing, painting and assembling car bodies, which are prohibited by related laws, at three GM Korea plants.
According to the prosecution's investigation, the partner companies sent a large number of workers to GM Korea's direct production process, claiming that it had made a "contract" without obtaining permission for the dispatch business.
kslee@koreaittimes.com
