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E-Land Management, Labor Reach Accord
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/11/117_34374.html

By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter

Labor disputes involving contract workers at retail group E-Land have come to an end after 500 days of disputes.

Union members and management at E-Land and Samsung Tesco Home Plus officially announced they reached a final agreement to put an end to the disputes at the retailer's headquarters in Seoul, Thursday.

E-Land had operated New Core and Homever outlets, and Samsung Tesco took over Homever in October, changing the name of the outlets to Home Plus.

The disputes started in July last year when E-Land laid off 900 contract workers ahead of the adoption of the revised Labor Law, according to which the company would have been obligated to grant regular status to the contract workers, thus paying a higher salary.

The union and management agreed that Home Plus would makes efforts to convert temporary employees into regular ones and not to outsource workers anymore. The company also promised to reinstate 16 workers among 28 who were fired during the walkout.

Twelve leaders of the union resigned from their post as a sign of a fresh start.

Home Plus also pledged to raise the salary of temporary workers from E-Land and allow them the same holiday period as that of regular employees _ measures to decrease disparity in working conditions between regular and non-regular workers.

The union promised not to walkout for the next three years. The union and management also agreed to cooperate in the company's development, dropping legal suits they filed against each other.

The 17-month-long disputes started on July 1 last year as unionized workers of E-Land staged sit-in rallies at a Homever outlet in northern Seoul. The sit-in expanded to other outlets and New Core in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province but ended on July 20 when police cracked down on protesters. Workers remained on strike until recently.

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