Sanofi Aventis Korea’s labor union criticized management for using excessive and unfair discipline against workers for years and pointed to the company’s Ethics & Business Integrity (E&BI) program as the main culprit.

Unionized workers claimed that the E&BI department in Korea misinterpreted the global headquarters’ “integrity and zero-tolerance” principle and used disciplinary measures deemed excessive in Korean corrective measures, labor laws, and social norms.

The trade union said that Sanofi Aventis Korea unfairly dismissed or disciplined employees and paid a massive amount of settlement money for several years.
The trade union said that Sanofi Aventis Korea unfairly dismissed or disciplined employees and paid a massive amount of settlement money for several years.

Due to legal disputes with employees, the company spent hundreds of millions of won for settlements and legal expenses and caused tremendous losses to the company, the trade union said.

On Wednesday, the union issued a statement, “Sanofi Aventis is an unethical company that pays money to settle years of reckless disciplines and layoffs.”

According to the statement, Sanofi established robust governance by making precise rules following the legal framework in each country the company operates. The company also implements a rigorous internal control framework to prevent violations of internal rules. At the center of this approach is the E&BI department.

“Citing the global compliance principle, ‘integrity and zero-tolerance,’ the company wrongly disciplined or terminated 14 employees from 2016 to 2021,” the labor union said.

The union went on to say that it respected the company’s global ethics principles and acknowledged that they are essential values that the workers must thoroughly uphold.

However, the trade union said that the Korean offshoot’s E&BI investigation methods and procedures at the disciplinary committee were an exaggerated interpretation of the global headquarters’ standard operating procedures (SOPs) for zero-tolerance against corruption.

“This is very worrisome because the company is excessively abusing disciplinary authority, which is too strict compared to local corrective measures, labor laws, and social norms,” the union said in the statement.

The union said establishing SOPs to observe global principles ensures that the purpose is achieved adequately through continuous employee training.

However, the company interpreted customary reasons -- such as workers’ small mistakes, corporate cards following the manager’s instructions, and the company’s unclear call records – as grave ones and made disciplinary cases. Then, the company applied standards and measures that went against the domestic labor law and unfairly reprimanded or dismissed workers, the union said.

Although the company spent hundreds of millions of won in settlement money and legal costs, causing considerable losses to the company, it misjudged that the decisions by the E&BI department in Korea were legitimate, the labor union went on to say. Then, the union said that the Korean management appealed their difficulties in labor-management relations to the headquarters and used the appeal as a defense.

The union said it had delivered an e-mail containing six years of records of unfair disciplinary measures and dismissals to the global headquarters.

The e-mail says that two of the 14 workers who were reprimanded unfairly received settlement money and ended the lawsuit before the Supreme Court’s final ruling. Three others were reinstated to Sanofi Aventis Korea after the final verdict.

The e-mail also noted that two others left the company after receiving settlement payment without clear disciplinary procedures, two others’ complaint about the unfair layoff was pending at an administrative court, and that of another worker was pending at a higher court. One is in a civil lawsuit.

“What these cases have in common is that the company conducted unfair layoffs by unreasonably abusing reprimand authority and paid settlements to close cases,” the labor union said. “Is paying settlement after unfair layoff complying with integrity,” it questioned.

The trade union said that the company lost most of the lawsuits, and the combined expenses for legal procedures, salaries, and settlements for unfairly dismissed employees were astronomical.

“How long will the E&BI department in Korea, which arbitrarily interprets and distorts the global principle of integrity due to the lack of professional knowledge on the Korean labor law, waste huge litigation costs and settlement money and repeat this mistake?” the union asked.

The union demanded that the head of the E&BI department in Korea, a “non-expert,” should communicate to an employee about the investigation target and criteria when the employee becomes subject to an investigation.

The union said that the company should investigate based on facts and stop unethical conciliation efforts such as coercion and intimidation during an investigation.

Copyright © KBR Unauthorized reproduction, redistribution prohibited