Taxi companies caught not guaranteeing monthly salary of 2 million won for drivers

Relatives of Lee Gong-hwan, a taxi worker whose alter ego died in protest of unpaid wages, call for the punishment of employers at the Franciscan Education Center in Seoul on Nov. 24. Han Soo-bin

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on January 30 that it found 21 corporate taxi companies in Seoul, including Haesung Transportation, which did not guarantee the basic salary of taxi drivers who did not earn a monthly base wage.

Seoul said the 21 companies deducted the shortage amount of money below the monthly base wage of around 4.5 million won from taxi drivers’ basic salary if they failed to earn the monthly base wage. For example, a taxi driver who earned only 4 million won a month received a salary deducting 500,000 won from his basic salary.

This is a violation of the full salary management system that was implemented in January 2020. Previously, the court ruled that even if labor and management agreed to deduct the amount below the monthly base wage from drivers’ salary, it was invalid to ensure the purpose of the full salary management system. On December 29 last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the full salary management system, which was implemented to guarantee the monthly salary of taxi drivers, should be regarded as a mandatory law.

In the full salary management system, which is a kind of monthly salary system, taxi drivers pay their entire income to the company and then receive a monthly salary based on a labor-management agreement. Although it varies from company to company, the basic salary of a corporate taxi driver ranges from 2 million to 2.1 million won per month.

An official from Seoul's Taxi Policy Division said, "Corporate taxi companies claim that they did not deduct a certain amount of money from drivers’ wages but advanced them the money. However, there is no evidence, so we will listen to each company’s explanation and make a final decision on whether to impose a fine on them.”

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said it will begin a full investigation of all 233 corporate taxi companies in March, with two employees exclusively assigned to the task.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.