Market Kurly: South Korean grocery company heavily criticized for ostracizing staff

Market Kurly, the South Korean local grocery delivery company has been lambasted for allegedly cutting off its temporary workers in its logistics centers. It was further said that it has been firing employees who were tagged as troublemakers.

The alleged blacklisting of workers by logistics managers

As per The Korea Times, the Kyunghyang Shinmun, a major daily newspaper in South Korea, published a report stating that managers at the distribution hubs of Market Kurly have created a list of workers who they think showed poor performance or caused troubles while in the workplace and immediately dismissed them from their job post.

It was reported that the paper found at least 500 names in the list made by the managers. The worst part is that the same managers were said to have shared the list to employment agencies so that the workers will not be able to find new jobs.

Market Kurly tried to address the issue by saying that the names on the list were only those who were lazy on the job site and wanting to end their contracts with the company. However, the employees have spoken up and said that the managers have been using the list to fire those who they find annoying.

One employee who wants to remain anonymous said that he was blacklisted for getting off work early which happened twice. He said that eventhough, he made sure to go through the proper procedure to get permission to leave early, he was still listed in the book.

He said he was fired after raising a complaint at Market Kurly’s headquarters in August last year. In his claim, he reported the managers’ wrongdoings including swearing and sexual harassment. But rather than addressing the issue, the grocery delivery company sided with the managers.

"The worker in question clashed with colleagues and did not follow orders from managers while leaving work without notice,” a Market Kurly rep said. “So we did not allocate him to any duty and this cannot be seen as unfair dismissal."

Market Kurly refuted the claims

The grocery delivery company said that blacklisting workers is not something illegal. It further claimed that the managers only listed those who demonstrated poor work ethics and added that Market Kurly never used the list so they will not be hired anywhere else.

But then again, it seems that Market Kurly is wrong so it was slammed for its stance. In fact, in South Korea’s Article 40 of Labor Standards Act, it was stated that “no person shall prepare and use secret signs or lists, or have communications, for the purpose of interfering with the employment of a worker.”

"For a temporary worker at Market Kurly who's been working with the firm for quite a long time, disrupting him from finding a job at another place can cause great damage," Yoon Ji Young of the Human Rights Law Foundation said.