The National Labor Relations Commission [Photo by Kim Yong-hun]
The National Labor Relations Commission [Photo by Kim Yong-hun]

A public interest legal group has filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, alleging that regional and national labor commissions violated the right to defense of foreign workers by failing to provide interpretation during unfair dismissal relief proceedings. The group called the omission discriminatory on the basis of nationality.

According to legal sources Tuesday, Heemangjul — a public interest human rights lawyers' group — submitted the complaint, arguing that the labor commissions' failure to provide interpretation during unfair dismissal relief hearings constituted discrimination in violation of the right to equality and the principle of due process.

The complaint concerns unfair dismissal relief proceedings involving two Sri Lankan workers who had been employed as welders at a shipyard in Ulsan. After being dismissed, they filed for relief with the Ulsan Regional Labor Relations Commission in June last year, but said no separate interpretation was provided during the hearing held in August of that year, despite their limited Korean proficiency.

According to Heemangjul, a fellow worker — not a professional interpreter — handled interpretation at the time. The workers said they were unable to adequately present their positions because commissioners continued speaking before interpretations were completed and legal terms went unexplained during the proceedings.

The group also said a request to extend the hearing time to accommodate consecutive interpretation was denied. Of the roughly one hour and 20 minutes the hearing lasted, actual question-and-answer time fell short of half that, it said.

Heemangjul said the same problems recurred at the National Labor Relations Commission review hearing held in February this year. Interpretation support and a hearing extension were again denied, effectively limiting the foreign workers' meaningful participation in the process.

The group said that because unfair dismissal relief proceedings before labor commissions can lead to administrative litigation and are in effect quasi-judicial in nature, they require the same interpretation support and sufficient hearing time as criminal and civil trials to guarantee foreign parties a genuine right to defense.

It also asked the human rights commission to rule on what it called discrimination on the basis of nationality, saying that denying interpretation and refusing to extend hearing time without justification undermined the principle of due process.

The complaint is expected to prompt a broader debate over the scope of interpretation obligations and procedural rights for foreign workers in labor commission hearings.


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