Paris Baguette Faces $46.5 Million Fine for Outsourcing Bakers

Paris Baguette is about to get hit with a huge fine if it doesn’t directly hire 5,400 bakers in 25 days:

Paris Baguette is facing its biggest crisis in its history as it has been ordered by the government to hire 5,400 patissiers directly, placing a heavier financial burden on Korea’s largest bakery franchise.

Currently, most patissiers working at Paris Baguette franchisees are dispatched by the firm’s 11 partner firms, but are trained and supervised by the bakery.

The Ministry of Labor and Employment is calling the practice illegal because patissiers are not one of 32 occupations allowed to be outsourced under the law, ordering the bakery to directly hire them.

The ministry said Paris Baguette opts to have its small business partners hire workers and send them to work for it, which costs less than directly hiring them as regular employees.

However, Paris Baguette said it shouldn’t be obliged to hire patissiers, adding they do not work for the franchise headquarters. The bakery said patissiers work at franchisees, stressing it trains and supervises them on behalf of franchised store owners.

The company said it is considering filing an administrative litigation against labor ministry’s order to directly hire bakers dispatched by its partner firms.

The ministry concluded Thursday that Paris Baguette has directly supervised bakers dispatched by its partner companies, violating the legal dispatch code of the labor law. The ministry ordered it to directly hire all of the 5,378 bakers who are working at its 3,396 franchise stores.

If Paris Baguette does not comply with the order within 25 days after receiving the official document, it would face a fine of up to 53 billion won ($46.5 million).  [Korea Times via reader link]

You can read more at the link, but I don’t see any evidence in the article of the bakers being mistreated by the franchisees that hired them.  I think there is probably more to this story than what is published in the article.