Industrial Accident Litigation | Analysis of a District Court Judgment Recognizing the Employee Status of a Freelance Driver Engaged Under a Service Contract with a Company

In this industrial accident litigation, the plaintiff was Transport Company A, which filed a lawsuit against the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service seeking revocation of the disposition approving medical care insurance benefits.

For its transport operations, Transport Company A had entered into employment contracts with 13 in-house trailer drivers and service contracts with 15 freelance trailer drivers.

In the course of this, B, a freelance trailer driver, suffered an accident in which his left leg was caught while helping another driver move a vehicle within Company A's worksite.

B applied to the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service for medical care insurance benefits, and the Service approved the application.

Company A, however, filed a lawsuit seeking revocation of this disposition, asserting that B was not an employee under the Labor Standards Act.

The court that heard this industrial accident litigation recognized B's employee status and found that the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service's disposition approving the medical care benefits was lawful.

The court stated that "freelance drivers also received dispatch instructions from Company A's clients, performed transport work, and then recorded the vehicle operation status in an application," and found that the work of freelance drivers was no different from that of in-house drivers.

Although B's service contract did not separately set commuting hours, B had handled Company A's transport work at fixed hours six days a week, and even taking leave or leaving early required Company A's permission. Accordingly, the court found that B was bound to the working hours and place designated by Company A.

In addition, the fact that Company A bore the insurance premiums, fuel costs, and repair costs for the vehicle B operated also served as a basis for recognizing his employee status. The court found that "because the trailer B operated was registered under Company A's name, B cannot be regarded as having performed the transport work as an independent business operator."

The court also found that the transport fees B received were compensation for the provision of labor. Under the service contract, B received 35% of the transport revenue as a transport fee. On this point, the court stated, "although B was paid money in the name of transport fees rather than wages, the amounts received each month did not differ greatly given the nature of the work," and found that "it is reasonable to regard this as compensation for the provision of labor rather than compensation for the completion of the service work."

We have analyzed a district court judgment recognizing the employee status of a freelance driver who performed transport work at fixed hours and received vehicle insurance premiums, fuel costs, and repair costs from the company in connection with this industrial accident litigation.

An industrial accident lawsuit is a lawsuit against a state agency, which requires a legal understanding and presents the difficulty of having to prove a causal relationship between the work and the accident or disease, so the assistance of an experienced professional may be helpful.

Daeryun Law Firm LLP's 🔗attorneys handling industrial accident matters draw on extensive practical experience to provide advice on labor law generally and to assist with the resolution of disputes. If you need assistance with a related matter, you are welcome to contact Daeryun at any time.