▲ A signboard of the Ministry of Employment and Labor (Yonhap)

special counsel-Coupang

Special prosecutors raid labor ministry over Coupang's unpaid severance pay

SEOUL, Jan. 27 (Yonhap) -- A special counsel team raided the labor ministry Tuesday as part of its compulsory investigation into allegations of unpaid severance pay for Coupang Corp. employees.

Special counsel Ann Gweon-seob sent prosecutors and investigators to the ministry's headquarters in the central city of Sejong in the morning to secure data related to its policy guidelines on Coupang's severance pay dispute.

Mobile phones of some ministry officials in charge of labor and retirement pay policies were seized, and the Seoul Regional Employment and Labor Office was also included in the search and seizure warrant, Ann's office said.

Coupang Fulfillment Services, a logistics subsidiary of Coupang, is suspected of changing its employment rules in May 2023 to the disadvantage of its employees who have worked for more than one year and failing to pay their severance pay.

Ann's team recently called in some labor ministry officials for questioning about the ministry's handling of Coupang's severance pay case.

"The raid on the labor ministry was conducted to confirm various suspicions related to Coupang," said a special counsel official, refusing to elaborate further.

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