The Environment and Labor Committee Holds Hearings on Coupang 'Delivery Workers' and Daewoo Winia 'Wage Arrears'

Coupang Chairman Kim Beom-seok to Miss National Assembly Hearing

A National Assembly hearing on Coupang, which has been controversial due to delivery drivers' death from overwork and excessive late-night labor, will be held on the 21st.

National Assembly Building, Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Asia Economy DB

The National Assembly Environment and Labor Committee will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. that day to improve working conditions such as late-night labor of Coupang delivery workers.

The Environment and Labor Committee has pointed out the current status and problems of Coupang delivery drivers' working conditions, including excessive night labor caused by Rocket Delivery and dawn delivery. At this hearing, plans to review the responses of the government and Coupang will be discussed.

Five witnesses have been selected, including Coupang founder Kim Beom-seok, Chairman of Coupang Inc., and Kang Han-seung, CEO of Coupang. However, it is reported that Chairman Kim submitted a letter of absence citing attendance at the inauguration ceremony of U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington D.C. on the 20th (local time) as the reason. As reference witnesses, Kang Min-wook, Executive Director of the Delivery Workers' Death from Overwork Countermeasures Committee, and the father of the late Jeong Seul-gi, who died after working on Coupang's late-night Rocket Delivery, have been selected.

The Environment and Labor Committee will also hold a hearing on the same day regarding Daewoo Winia Group, which caused controversy over wage arrears.

Five witnesses have been selected for the Daewoo Winia hearing, including Park Young-woo, Chairman of Daewoo Winia. Chairman Park was arrested and indicted in March last year on charges of failing to pay 39.8 billion KRW in wages and severance pay to 738 workers of Winia Electronics and Winia Dimchae, and is currently on trial.