공급망에서 발생한 인권침해에 대한 기업의 책임: 현대중공업 사내하청 노동자의 산업재해 문제 해결을 위한 새로운 접근

The workplace injuries in subcontract workers of the Hyundai Heavy Industry (HHI) have been notorious in Korea. In 2014, as many as 14 workers were killed in the HHI shipbuilding yard and they were all subcontract workers. More than 90% of workplace injuries in the yard are allegedly covered up without reporting to the insurance and the public authority as required by the law, with the injured subcontract workers left without proper medical care and compensation. This article offers a way to reduce the workplace injuries and cover-ups suffered by subcontract workers in HHI. This article argues that HHI as a prime contractor (as a buyer) should take the responsibility for the reduction of workplace injuries and cover-ups in the HHI shipbuilding yard despite the fact that the workers are the employees of subcontractors in legal terms. This argument itself is not uncommon but is different from others in a sense that it is grounded on the recent 20-year experiences and the international norms on “the corporate responsibility for the human rights violations committed in supply chains.” International community has reached an agreement that buyers should be held responsible for the human rights violations committed in their supply chains. While such an agreement can partly be justified by the fact that buyers have caused or contributed to the human rights abuses, current international norms on business and human rights impose on the buyers such responsibility even if they did not contribute to the human rights violations. It is, therefore, in accordance not only with the common sense of justice but also with international norms on business and human rights to impose HHI the responsibility for the workplace injuries of subcontract workers. The responsibility expected of HHI should not be limited to the monitoring and sanctioning of subcontractors that fail to meet the standards provided by HHI. The proper way to impose the responsibility on HHI, which can be labelled as “stakeholder participation model”, is the creation of legally binding obligations by negotiation among stakeholders, which include HHI and subcontract workers. Such approach is gaining supports as an alternative to the failed attempt called “buyer-led model”, and turn out to be fruitful. Lastly this article proposes to increase leverage to push HHI to the negotiation table by attacking global, but reputation-sensitive foreign customers of HHI.