An executive of PB Partners, a company that hires the bakers at Paris Baguette, a member of the SPC group, tried to tear down a trade union by instructing baking manager consultants (BMCs) to persuade workers to withdraw their union membership since last March, according to a disclosure by a former BMC. Each time the baking manager consultants gathered for a meeting, the director persuaded them to pressure bakers to leave the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and paid rewards to consultants who successfully got bakers to withdraw their membership.

According to the Paris Baguette chapter of the National Chemical, Textile, and Food Industries Union, a member of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, on June 30, A, who worked as a baking manager consultant supervising bakers at PB Partners, a subsidiary of Paris Baguette, recently told the union that the director and chief of manufacturing pressured and instructed BMCs since March to force bakers in their respective branches to withdraw from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.

According to A, Director B received reports from his consultants on the status of the union membership of the employees that the consultants managed nearly everyday. During meetings, he also paid BMCs who successfully had their workers leave the union a reward of 10,000-50,000 won for each worker who withdrew their union membership.

A said, “Around March and April, B suddenly gave a direct order to the BMCs to get their workers to withdraw their membership from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. B even gave them money if the workers left the KCTU and joined the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU). When BMCs came together, such as in the morning meetings, B said to the consultants who had their workers leave the KCTU and join the FKTU, “Good work. You got this many to switch?” and encouraged the BMCs, A added. A also said, “The assessment by the director changed according to how many workers the BMC persuaded to leave the KCTU instead of by the performance of the actual tasks of the BMC, which is to visit the branches and manage hygiene and quality.”

The director is an employer who has the authority to hire, assign and evaluate employees. The baking manager consultants who received the instructions from the employer had no choice but to visit the bakers who belonged to the KCTU and advise that they leave the union and join the FKTU instead, according to A. The consultants manage about 30-40 bakers on site.

A also claimed that B was aware of which bakers in each branch were members of the KCTU. According to A, B made a list of these bakers, handed the list out to the BMCs and instructed that they advise the bakers to leave the union. A also said that B pressured the BMCs who managed branches with a large number of KCTU members. A said, “If you couldn’t get the bakers to leave the KCTU, you’d lose favor with B. If there was a BMC who had a lot of KCTU members (among the workers he managed), then he’d constantly get called in.”

Article 81 of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act bans employers from overseeing or intervening in the workers’ efforts to organize and operate a trade union. Kwon Doo-seob, a lawyer at Gapjil 119 said, “Cajoling or pressuring a worker to create or not to create a union, or to join or leave a trade union is banned for it is a typical example of an employer attempting to govern and intervene in the union.” He further explained, “If an employer engaged in any such activity, he could receive criminal punishment.”

More than 300 members of the Paris Baguette chapter of the National Chemical, Textile, and Food Industries Union withdrew their membership from March to May. The KCTU argued that company executives personally called union members and demanded that they withdraw their membership. The KCTU also found circumstances suggesting that the executives refused to rehire any former employee who was a member of the union.

Paris Baguette stirred controversy when it was uncovered that the company had delayed the payment of overtime pay and illegally hired agency workers in June 2017. The Ministry of Employment and Labor ordered Paris Baguette to directly hire over 5,000 bakers of partner companies and to pay unpaid wages including overtime pay and wages for working on holidays, which amounted to nearly 11 billion won in September 2017. The company then established the corporation, Happy Partners and hired the workers. This company was later renamed PB Partners.

In December 2017, when the problem of directly hiring the bakers had not been resolved, a second trade union affiliated to the FKTU was established in addition to the Paris Baguette chapter of the National Chemical, Textile, and Food Industries Union. At the time the KCTU said, “Circumstances strongly suggest that the partner companies, which were one party responsible for the illegal hiring of agency workers, were involved in the organization of the new union,” and argued that the new union was “one supporting management and partner firms.”

Paris Baguette denied the information disclosed by A as “groundless.” The company further said, “We will uncover the truth with a thorough investigation on the allegations,” and added, “We will also take strong legal action against the groundless accusations by the National Chemical, Textile, and Food Industries Union.”