2008년 노동법 판례 연구

This paper selected 35 prominently noticeable judicial precedents of labor cases through which the Supreme Court of Korea presented a new opinion or strengthened previous opinions in 2008. For this study, they were summed up and analyzed in division of three areas of individual labor relations, collective industrial relations, and relations from industrial accident compensation for exploration of trends in judicial precedents of labor cases by the Supreme Court of Korea. The trend in judicial precedents of the Supreme Court of Korea in the area of individual labor relations that strengthened protection of employees for the last a few years continued in 2008. It is very meaningful that employees won in cases for recognition of employee characteristics of those employed to the Debt Collection Office which had a great social implication, recognition of employees belonging to the contractor in governmental contracts as employees of contractors in contracts within the company, and the issue whether employees of employment agencies can be considered as employees directly employed by the using employer as for illegal dispatch of employees. On the other hand, the area of collective industrial relations still interprets strictly the conditions for legitimacy of labor disputes. Furthermore, there were decisions that alleviate requirements for new employment of substitute employees allowed during labor disputes and that restrict criminal obligations for illegitimate labor activities. As collective actions of public officials are still prohibited based on the National Public Official Act and the Local Civil Service Act, which implies the necessity to fundamentally reestablish the significance that the Constitution guarantees employees’ three basic labor rights - to organize, bargain collectively and strike. In the area of industrial accident compensation, based on the decision on September 28, 2007 made by a plenary session of the Supreme Court of Korea, while the position that does not recognize accidents that occur during commuting hours as industrial accidents was maintained, there were two other decisions by the Supreme Court of Korea that recognized the accident as an industrial accident based on specificity of individual cases, which deserves attention.