South Korea’s Supreme Court confirmed a lower court ruling that Webzen’s failure to pay a union branch head wage increases and incentives was an unfair labor practice. The case began with a 2023 relief petition and concluded at the Supreme Court after proceedings at the local and central labor commissions, an administrative court and a high court.

The Webzen branch of the Korea Chemical Fiber and Food Workers Union said on Tuesday that the Supreme Court on April 30 rejected Webzen’s appeal and upheld the lower court ruling. The decision was unanimous.

WHY PAYMENT OF AGREED WAGES WAS BLOCKED

A time-off union official refers to a worker who, under a collective agreement or with employer consent, uses a set amount of time or all working time for union duties without loss of pay. The branch head in this case was a full-time time-off union official.

Webzen and the Webzen branch agreed through a 2021 collective agreement and a 2022 wage agreement to pay the branch head, as a time-off union official, wage increases and incentives based on the union members’ average. Differences later emerged between labour and management over how to calculate the average and whether to provide personal data.

Webzen did not pay the branch head wage increases and incentives for 2022 and 2023, citing its failure to obtain union members’ personal data. The union presented three alternatives under which the average could be calculated without personal data, but Webzen continued to demand conditions that were difficult to implement and refused payment. The union viewed this as disadvantageous treatment related to union activities and filed an application with the local labor commission for relief over an unfair labor practice.

FROM LABOR COMMISSION TO SUPREME COURT, CONSISTENT RULINGS

The case produced the same conclusion at both the labor commissions and the courts.

The local labor commission ruled on Oct. 16, 2023 that it was an unfair labor practice amounting to disadvantageous treatment. Webzen sought a retrial, but the central labor commission on Feb. 15, 2024 upheld the same ruling as the initial decision.

Webzen then filed an administrative lawsuit. On Jan. 24, 2025, the Seoul Administrative Court ruled that the plaintiff’s conduct of continuing to demand measures that were difficult to implement and failing over a long period to pay the participant (the branch head) wage increases and incentives for 2022 and 2023 in itself amounted to an employer’s disadvantageous treatment.

The appellate court, a high court, on Dec. 11, 2025 upheld the first-instance ruling. The high court additionally said Article 24 of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act provides that time-off union officials carry out union duties "without loss of pay" and that Article 11 of the collective agreement also provides that there shall be no disadvantageous treatment for the reason of time-off and that time-off union officials’ wage increases apply in the same way as wage increases for all employees. It also ruled that the three options presented by the union were "reasonable alternatives".

Webzen appealed, but the Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously rejected the appeal and upheld the lower court ruling.

UNION SAYS LACK OF DIALOGUE WAS REGRETTABLE, WEBZEN SAYS IT WILL COMPLY

Young-ho Noh (노영호), head of the Webzen branch, said the judiciary clearly confirmed it was illegal to arbitrarily interpret the contents of labour-management agreements and disadvantage legitimate union activities. He added it was regrettable that there was no communication to resolve the issue with CEO Tae-young Kim (김태영), the responsible party, during more than 3 years of legal dispute. Noh added he hoped they could sincerely cooperate for Webzen’s development even after this.

Se-yoon Oh (오세윤), deputy chair of the Korea Chemical Fiber and Food Workers Union and head of its IT committee, criticised management for trying to block the branch head’s legitimate wage increase while wasting public company assets on large legal costs, not personal funds, simply because it personally could not accept the issue. He also stressed the need to establish labor courts to provide swift relief for rights, citing that it took 5 rounds of dispute resolution for a single case from the labor commission rulings to the Supreme Court decision.

Webzen said it respects the Supreme Court’s decision and will verify specific matters and comply in line with the ruling’s intent.