A Seoul court ruled Monday that the labor union of South Korea’s largest conglomerate, Samsung Group, can protest in front of the company headquarters, opening the way for the union to stage a legitimate rally there.

The Seoul Administrative Court accepted the union’s request to cancel a police prohibition on the rally the union planned to hold later that afternoon to honor a Samsung Electronics employee who died from leukemia he allegedly contracted at work.

The landmark decision, the first of its kind, put a brake on a conglomerate-wide practice of restricting union rallies around company buildings by applying for their own rally before any request from unionists is made.

By law, those planning to hold an outdoor rally in a public place must report their plan to police at least 48 hours beforehand. When more than two organizations register rally plans for the same place, police have usually given the rights to the first applicant.

“There is no concern that permitting the rally would harm public welfare,” Judge Jin Chang-soo said in the court decision.

The worker-led union filed its petition with the court last month after the Songpa Police Station rejected its plan to hold a rally in front of the Samsung Electronics’ headquarters in southern Seoul, citing that a company-led union had already registered.

The plaintiff said the company-led union registered to hold rallies more than 130 times this year but never actually held any, arguing it was just a ploy to prevent other unions voicing their rights.

The worker-led union marked its first anniversary last week, vowing to “persistently fight” the management’s denial of its status.

Samsung has disallowed any labor union under a so-called “no-union management policy” since its founding. However, after a new labor law allowing workers to form multiple trade unions in a single workplace took effect last July, workers submitted an application to form the first worker-led union, which was formally recognized by the labor ministry. (Yonhap News)