Holding a Subcommittee Meeting on the 10th to Deliberate Agenda Items
[Asia Economy Reporter Eunju Lee] The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) was unable to reach a conclusion on whether to refer the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Cargo Solidarity Headquarters (Cargo Solidarity) for obstruction of investigation to the prosecution on the 10th. The responsible department advocated for prosecution referral, but the commissioners decided to submit the matter to a plenary session.
On the same day at 10:45 a.m., the FTC held its first subcommittee meeting of the year at the Gwacheon Hearing Room to deliberate on the agenda regarding obstruction of investigation by Cargo Solidarity. Among the nine commissioners, three participated in the subcommittee: Standing Commissioner Byunghee Ko, Standing Commissioner Seongsam Kim, and Non-standing Commissioner Jeonghee Lee. The respondent side, Cargo Solidarity Headquarters and Chairman Bongju Lee, did not attend.
During the meeting, the Cartel Division judged that prosecution referral of Cargo Solidarity and Chairman Bongju Lee was necessary. However, the commissioners focused their questioning on whether sufficient persuasion efforts were made to secure cooperation from the respondents during the FTC’s attempt to conduct an on-site investigation of Cargo Solidarity. In December last year, the FTC attempted three times to conduct on-site investigations to obtain materials related to whether Cargo Solidarity coerced affiliated operators to participate in the general strike (refusal of transport) or obstructed other operators’ transport. However, Cargo Solidarity refused to cooperate with the investigation, claiming that conducting an on-site investigation under the Fair Trade Act against operators was unjust, resulting in failure. Since the FTC’s on-site investigation is an administrative investigation, the consent of the investigated party is mandatory.
According to the submitted report, during the on-site investigation attempt on December 2 last year, the FTC did not respond to the respondents’ request for an explanation of the investigation around 5 p.m. The Cartel Division explained, “This was because the respondents maintained their position of refusing the on-site investigation after the explanation.” However, Standing Commissioner Ko pointed out, “Since the respondents did not consider themselves as business associations, they had significant resistance to the FTC’s on-site investigation. Therefore, it was necessary to allow sufficient time and persuade them step-by-step.”
Questions were also raised about the background of attempting an on-site investigation without prior written investigation. Commissioner Kim asked, “The act of coercing refusal of transport is not a very complicated issue. It would be better to first conduct an investigation through documents and proceed to on-site investigation only if that is insufficient. Since investigation is not only on-site, was there a particular reason to insist on entering the site?” The Cartel Division responded, “Before going to the site, Cargo Solidarity declared that it would refuse all government investigations and also refused to submit the list of affiliated operators. Given the low expectation that our document submission order would be complied with, a prompt on-site investigation was necessary to prevent the possibility of data concealment or destruction.”
Further confirmation was sought on whether there was sufficient evidence of ‘obstruction of investigation’ to separately prosecute Chairman Bongju Lee of Cargo Solidarity. Commissioner Lee said, “To prosecute the chairman individually apart from Cargo Solidarity, there must be evidence that the individual issued independent orders separate from union executives that led to obstruction of investigation.” The Cartel Division stated, “It is presumed that the chairman made the final decision. Considering the public statements made externally, it was confirmed that the chairman’s intention was reflected.”
Members of civic, social, and religious organizations are holding a press conference in front of the War Memorial in Yongsan on the 13th, demanding an end to the suppression of the Cargo Solidarity and the abolition of the sunset clause on the Safe Freight Rate System. / Photo by Heo Younghan younghan@
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