[Unofficial Korean-to-English translation provided by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

"[Exclusive] In Seoul Club, a '100 million membership fee' social club... 10 member surveillance team follows union members," 3 May 2024

... Seoul Central District Court ... sentenced A, the general manager of Seoul Club, and B, the general director, to four months in prison and two years' probation in September 2023. According to the verdict, the Seoul Club engaged in unfair labor practices to neutralize the Seoul Club trade union since 2017, and in particular, mobilized more than 10 people, including part-time workers, to follow and monitor union members.

...A and others argued at trial that they "only photographed banners to gather evidence of defamation and spreading of rumors."

However, Judge Park did not accept their claim, stating that they "went beyond documenting the defamatory and insulting banners and monitored and received reports on when the members commuted to and from work, when they met with whom at the workplace and outside, which members went to the protest, and which members were involved in posting the banners."

...In particular, it recognized the Club's obligation to compensate for mental distress, saying that not only A and B, but also the Seoul Club, "had the purpose of intervening in union activities and interfering with election of directors."

...There were also dismissals targeting union members. In March 2017, A fired C after C allegedly blew the whistle on his alleged embezzlement. In November 2017, A dismissed the representative of the Seoul Club union for corruption. The Court found both dismissals to be unfair labor practices.

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