Marriott’s Seoul Renaissance Hotel (again) ordered to reinstate unjustly outsourced workers

The following article was published on 7 February 2010 in the Korea Times.  It is posted here for the interest of readers and describes a long-running dispute at the Seoul Renaissance Hotel with members of the IUF-affiliated Korean Federation of Service Workers’ Unions (KFSU).  The story provides significant detail to the way in which the Seoul Renaissance invented a scheme to outsource its cleaning operations, which was little more than an attack on senior workers.  As the article notes, the hotel “established a subcontractor, headed by one of its former executives, and transferred its workers to the new agency’s payroll….the transferred maids saw their income slashed by one-third and welfare benefits removed.” The IUF and the KFSU continue to campaign for the reinstatement of the workers.

Court Orders Renaissance to Reinstate 8 Fired Maids; Ruling Set to Affect Intercontinental Hotel Case
By Park Si-soo

Maids are pivotal to hotel operations. But with the hotel industry not being what it once was, their job security is unstable. Hotels are trying to hire them as non-regular staff members, making it easy to fire them and reduce their benefits.

For that reason, the Renaissance Seoul and Grand Intercontinental hotels in southern Seoul have been in legal disputes for years, while the Lotte and Grand Hilton hotels in northern Seoul resolved such disputes before they went to court.

Last Friday, Lee Ok-soon, a former maid at the Renaissance, had her best day in years following a court ruling ordering the hotel to reinstate her and seven other women and recognize them as its fulltime employees.

“We sincerely appreciate that the court recognized us as the hotel’s fulltime workers,” the 54-year-old told The Korea Times. But she said the amount of compensation set by the ruling was lower than expected.

Lee is one of eight former maids of the hotel who have been engaged in a legal battle against Renaissance for six years. In 2004, the eight filed a suit against the five-star hotel in Yeoksam-dong to be reinstated as fulltime staff. Lee was one of the few remaining workers who started work at the Renaissance when it first opened in 1988.

“I devoted myself to the hotel as a maid. But it dumped me in 2001,” she said during the interview, while fighting back tears. Until December 2001, the women were fulltime maids at the hotel. But they were the first to be let go under its rationalization plan.

In late 2001, the Renaissance established a subcontractor, headed by one of its former executives, and transferred its workers to the new agency’s payroll. The transfers were made under the promise that they would continue to work at the hotel, get the same income and welfare benefits as they had previously.

Soon enough, the transferred maids saw their income slashed by one-third and welfare benefits removed, Lee explained.

“We realized they had deceived us,” Lee said. “We complained to the hotel over the reduced salary and welfare benefits. But it claimed it wasn’t liable in the case, citing documents we signed to switch our employer from the hotel to the outsourcing agency.”

In 2004, Lee lodged a petition with the Ministry of Labor, arguing they were virtually employees under direct management of the hotel, not those dispatched by the agency. In June of the same year, the ministry issued a legally-binding statement ordering the hotel to reinstate the petitioners as fulltime workers. The Renaissance appealed the decision and then terminated its contract with the outsourcing agency.

The agency went out of business soon after the termination and the petitioners became jobless. The hotel currently uses maids on a contract with another firm, a Renaissance spokesman said.

In January 2007, the Seoul Central District Court upheld the ministry’s decision, ordering the hotel to rehire them as fulltime room maids and pay compensation between 1.28 million and 55 million won to the plaintiffs.

“The plaintiffs legally belong to the outsourcing agency. Given the evidence, however, the agency was confirmed to be fully supported financially and controlled by the hotel,” Judge Han Myung-soo of the Seoul Central District Court said in the ruling statement. “Given this, the plaintiffs should be regarded as fulltime employees of the hotel.”

Renaissance appealed again. Last Friday, an appellate court upheld the lower court’s decision, reaffirming the workers’ status as its fulltime employees.

“The accused should pay 1.13 million won to the plaintiffs on a monthly basis until they are reinstated,” Judge Kim Sang-chul of the Seoul High Court said in the ruling.

Kim Sung-min, spokesman for Renaissance, refused to elaborate on the issue in an interview following the ruling. The spokesman said: “We have yet to decide on our official stance. We will take our position after talks with relevant departments.”

The Supreme Court will have the final say, if the hotel appeals again.

“It’s very likely that the petitioners will get their long-cherished jobs back,” said Lee Chi-sun, a lawyer familiar with the case.

Lee Sung-jong, an official of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, said such disputes in the hotel industry began to occur from around 2000.

“The auto industry has kept a similar manpower-supply structure, but it has had less discord than hotels,” Lee said. “This suggests that hotels, regardless of size, pushed their cost-saving plans without thorough legal consultation.”

“I really want to get my job back,” the former maid Lee said. “The years-long dispute has left us tens of millions of won in debt. Maids should be treated well as our role is a decisive factor in determining a hotel’s quality. But this is not the case in Korea.”