Imported car dealer forces sales staff to cover financial losses

[Anchor]

A car salesperson sold a used car, but instead of receiving money from the company, he is actually paying money out of his own pocket.

It’s hard to understand, right?

We received a report that such an incident actually occurred, and our reporter Bae Ji-hyun investigated.

[Report]

Mr. A, a used car salesperson at a well-known authorized dealer for imported vehicles.

Every time he sold a test drive vehicle as a used car, he ended up paying personal money to the company.

[Mr. A/Employee of the company/voice altered: "It feels like the company is running a money lending business with us... This month, let’s settle this, this, and this..."]

This situation has been repeating for five years.

What exactly happened?

Sales employees are supposed to sell the test drive cars purchased by the dealer company as used cars, but the initial purchase price is higher than the market price, making it impossible to avoid losses when selling.

However, the company shifted this loss onto the sales employees.

[Mr. B/Employee of the company/voice altered: "(The company's designated purchase price is) 50 million won, but the current market selling price is 48 million won, so we had to bear the loss."]

It is reported that the amount of money the sales employees paid to cover their losses amounts to hundreds of millions of won.

[Mr. C/Employee of the company: "I work to make money, not to give money to the company..."]

Regardless of the employee's fault, it is a violation of the Labor Standards Act for a company to transfer losses incurred during work to its employees.

[Kim Sang-yeon/Lawyer: "(If the employee is at fault) and compensation is to be made, it should be determined by the court... The employer should not unilaterally transfer the loss using their power relationship..."]

It is reported that as soon as KBS's investigation began, the vice president of the company stated that they would not instruct sales employees to cover the losses in the future.

The company has stated, "We recognized that the operational method at the time could lead to losses for the sales employees," and "The company will bear the losses."

However, when KBS inquired whether there are plans to return the money already paid by the sales employees, they did not provide a response.

This is KBS News, Bae Ji-hyun.