Landmark ruling for KTX struggle?

From the Korea times:

Court Stands by Female KTX Crew

By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

A court has ruled that female crewmembers of the KTX, Korean bullet train, are employees of the state-run Korea Railroad (Korail).

The ruling is expected to result in a breakthrough of a long-term dispute between the female workers and the train company. Korail and KTX female attendants have been in conflict over working conditions of woman employees for almost two years.

While the women attendants are claiming they are dispatched workers from the train company, Korail is denying their claims saying they are under its outsourcing company which hired them as contract workers.

The Seoul Central District Court, Thursday, imposed a 1.5 million won fine on a director of KTX attendants on charges of staging an illegal strike but the court made it clear Korail is the actual employer of the protesting female crews.

The court stated that the outsourcing contracts on working conditions between the attendants and Korail Retail is not a substantial but nominal agreement. ``KTX female crews actually work for Korail. There is a silent working agreement between the crewmembers and the company. So Korail is the employer of the female workers according to laws on labor union and labor relations adjustment,’’ it said.

The court also said that Korail Retail was established with 100 percent of its shares owned by Korail and the management group is also from the train company. In addition, it is Korail that made regulations on KTX crews and the two companies cooperate to recruit crewmembers for the bullet train.

The court also pointed out that Korail was negligent in solving the dispute over the working conditions of the protesting crewmembers. Some 70 KTX female attendants lost their jobs as they refused to wear their uniforms to protest their poor working conditions.