29 unionized workers arrested over illegal construction site practices

All News 10:40 March 09, 2023

SEOUL, March 9 (Yonhap) -- Police have referred 102 unionized workers to the prosecution for potential indictment, 29 of them with physical detention, on charges of illegal acts at construction sites, the National Police Agency (NPA) said Thursday.

They were among 2,863 unionized construction workers police detected in their special crackdown on illegal construction site practices over the past three months, according to the NPA.

Financial extortion in the forms of monthly bonuses to unionized workers or salaries to full-time labor unionists was the most commonplace illegal act detected, accounting for 75.2 percent of the total cases, followed by business obstruction representing 10.5 percent.

Other types of such irregularities at construction sites included forced employment, use of violence and illegal labor demonstrations.

Of the 29 arrested, 21 are facing suspicions of financial extortion.

More than 77 percent of those detected were affiliated with one of the country's top two umbrella unions: the Federation of Korean Trade Unions and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.

Police plan to continue their crackdown through late June to get to the bottom of illegal construction site practices by unionized workers, officials said.

"Police will root out illegal acts and disorder at construction sites at any cost," NPA Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun said.

The government of President Yoon Suk Yeol has made labor reform a key policy focus, vowing to eradicate illegal practices by labor unions at construction sites.