Ssangyong employees must pay up for strike damages

A local court ruled against employees of Ssangyong Motor and demanded they pay compensation to both their company and the police for damages caused in violent rallies and strikes.

At a compensation lawsuit jointly filed by the company and the police against employees who staged a strike for 77 days to protest layoffs, the Suwon District Court’s judges ruled that employees should pay about 4.6 billion won ($4.3 million), which includes 3.3 billion won to the company and 1.3 billion won to the police.

“We judge that the defendants have the responsibility for paying compensation as they participated in protests in an illegal, violent way and the purpose and means of their protests lacked legitimacy,” the court said.

The people responsible for paying the compensation should include not only employees, the court said, but also some leftist labor activists who encouraged the protests.

The management of Ssangyong Motor argued its loss due to their protest was about 15 billion won, but the court acknowledged only about 3.3 billion won.

Police also called for about 1.4 billion won in loss, such as paying compensation to injured policemen who clashed with protestors or repairs of damaged equipment, including a police helicopter, but the court awarded only 1.3 billion won.

Reuters