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

"Kakao Mobility claims 'Fair Trade violation' during labor-management collective agreement," 31 March 2024

... Substitute drivers receive a proportion of the "fare" paid by the passengers as "remuneration". The passenger fare and commission fee are determined by Kakao's artificial intelligence algorithm. The substitute drivers' union demanded the company set a floor for the highly volatile remuneration and pay a "cancellation fee" if an assigned call is canceled due to customer or company circumstances.

... Kakao, on the other hand, said it could not agree on the 'fare demand,' citing the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act as the basis. .... Kakao told Hankyoreh that "the price of service use (fare) is a difficult matter to be decided by labor and management," and that "there is an opinion that if the service price is adjusted through a collective agreement, it may constitute unfair collaborative act, which is an offense under the Fair Trade Act."

... If Kakao's claim that it cannot participate in a collective agreement on 'remuneration' stands, it becomes meaningless to form a union for labor providers who are not defined as workers under the Labor Standards Act but are workers under the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act (Trade Union Act).

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