The National Assembly's Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee is discussing whether to summon Kim Han-kook, chief executive of IICombined, the operator of eyewear brand Gentle Monster, as a witness at this year's parliamentary audit. Lawmakers say the committee should press the company over 430 million won ($300,000) in unpaid wages and overtime violations uncovered in a government inspection, and examine whether the back pay has been settled and what steps have been taken to prevent a repeat.
According to political sources on the 2nd, the committee's ruling and opposition floor managers are negotiating over additional witnesses and references for the audit, which runs from the 6th to the 27th of this month. Kim was included on the list of requested witnesses at the request of a Democratic Party lawmaker's office on the committee. At a full committee meeting on Sept. 30, the panel approved only the names already agreed on by both parties, leaving additional witnesses to be handled later after further negotiations.
If Kim is adopted as a witness, the audit is expected to focus on how the 430 million won in unpaid wages was handled, whether affected workers have been paid, the overtime violations and the alleged misuse of a discretionary working hours system.
A targeted inspection of IICombined by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, announced in July, found that the company had failed to pay 430 million won in wages, including night and holiday work allowances, to 464 employees. The inspection also identified 115 violations of the rule capping overtime at 12 hours a week. In some cases, workers who had given birth less than a year earlier were ordered to work overtime beyond the legal limit. The company also granted spousal paternity leave shorter than the statutory 20 days in some instances.
The inspection found that IICombined had misused a discretionary working hours system in connection with the unpaid wages and overtime. Under that system, a flexible work arrangement, employees are given discretion over how they carry out their work and are deemed to have worked the hours agreed between labor and management. In a considerable number of cases, however, the company had employees work beyond the agreed hours without paying additional allowances, departing from the purpose of the system.
The problem is that the back pay has not been fully settled. Cases in which workers did not properly receive the wages owed to them remain, particularly among former employees. Some current and former designers say that despite long hours, the retroactive payments they received amounted to only a few thousand to a few tens of thousands of won, and that the company did not sufficiently disclose the basis for its calculations, including how overtime hours were recognized and how hourly rates were determined.
"It appears that payments have been made to current employees, but we understand that some issues remain unresolved for those who have left the company," a Democratic Party official said. "We are checking further on the matter."
