계약노동 종사자간 공동행위에 대한 공정거래법과 노동조합법의 중첩적 적용 문제

In the past, contract workers were not afforded the protections of labor law due to a lack of recognition as employees. However, in recent times, there has been a trend towards recognizing contract workers, including platform workers, as employees under labor union laws and granting them certain protections. This has led to an increasing social discourse regarding the need to confer labor law rights upon these workers. However, there is a concern that the social discourse surrounding contract workers, including platform workers, is overlooking other socially disadvantaged groups, such as consumers, and disregarding the social values protected by competition law. The point of conflict between the interests of contract workers and those of consumers and competition law may arise when contract workers engage in collective action. Although contract workers cannot legally exclude the application of comeptition law to their collective actions as undertaking, the recognition of these workers as employees under labor union laws and their engagement in collective action may significantly impair the interests of consumers. With the rapid increase of contract workers, including platform workers, in the platform economy, it is necessary to find a solution to the issue of overlapping application of competition law and labor union law with regard to collective actions by contract workers. Considering that platforms can contribute to the organization of contract workers, it is imperative to develop a prompt resolution to the issue. Unlike other types of special workers, platform workers should be considered as having consumers as their substantive trading partners, and therefore, it may be difficult to view them as being in a poor trading position. Therefore, collective actions by these workers should be scrutinized with more care.