The corporation separation is started from Employee rights

Kyungrak Kim, CEO of Daesang Labor Corporation

Kyungrak Kim, CEO of Daesang Labor Corporation

Business divisions of large foreign pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and MSD are actively in progress.

 

Pfizer separated the patent-expired drug business unit into Pfizer Upjohn last year, and MSD is working to spin off the women's health, patent-expired drug, and biosimilar business divisions into a new corporation called Organon & Co.

 

with the aim of the first half of next year.

 

The division of the division itself has a good purpose.

 

By becoming an independent incorporation, it can be specialized in specialized fields, and the management efficiency of the company is increased.

 

Regardless of the will of some employees, their company name changes.

 

The affiliation will change from one of the world's leading companies to an unknown company overnight.

 

The change of affiliation also affects credit loans and visa issuance.

 

The biggest reason why employees are more anxious about moving to a divided corporation is that there is a high concern that they will take steps to sell the so-called 'non-profitable business' to another company altogether.

 

The 'carve-out deal', which sells off non-core businesses after physically splitting them, is an active M&A method.

 

In fact, Pfizer announced the news of the merger with Mylan two months after Pfizer Upjohn was separated.

 

It has been changed to Viatris, which is named after the existing one.

 

Although Mylan and Pfizer are jointly controlled, Pfizer Upjohn employees think it is actually Pfizer's ‘Exit’.

 

There are concerns that MSD's Organon & Co.

 

will eventually follow the same procedure.

 

Employees say that they move personnel such as sales and marketing, but do not move related R&D personnel, and that an organon office is set up in WeWork, a shared office that does not require long-term contracts.

 

Kyungrak Kim, CEO of Daesang Labor Corporation, a former MSD salesman who specializes in the pharmaceutical industry in a meeting with Dailypharm, said, "In the case of the past, employees are more sensitive because there is a high possibility of the company’s sale." He said, "Pfizer and MSD are among the leading companies in the pharmaceutical industry, so depending on what kind of examples they set, they can have a big impact on other pharmaceutical companies in the future." Unlike Europe, where social security system is strong, and the United States, where horizontal movement is flexible, general administrative and sales positions are not easy to move in Korea, except for specialized fields such as research.

 

He said that there is a large supply of manpower for the sales and marketing jobs, which account for the largest portion of pharmaceutical companies, but the current demand for those jobs that can be absorbed by the pharmaceutical industry is limited.

 

Even if they move to a domestic company, they often come out without adapting to a completely different culture.

 

Also he added they have no choice but to actively respond to issues such as division of a corporation.

 

Currently, Pfizer's management and the union are negotiating over the issue of compensation due to the division and merger of corporations, and MSD is expected to proceed with negotiations in earnest when executives and staff members to move to Organon & Co.

 

are announced in October.

 

In relation to Hyundai Green Food in 2013, the Supreme Court did not recognize the 'opt out right', which allowed workers to choose or refuse a place of work when a company was divided.

 

In other words, in the current situation, it is a favorable situation for companies only when it comes to case law.

 

However, he expressed the opinion that It can be developed in a new way now.

 

"In this case, following the decision of the National Labor Relations Commission, both the first and second trials acknowledged workers' right to veto to transfer companies, and in the current situation that advocates a labor-respecting society, so another judgment could come out." Hyundai Green Food’s case is too far to be compared with the current corporate division of foreign companies, so it is judged that there is a high probability of a fight in the future.” He continued, "In the issue of division and sale of a corporation, the management of the Korean branch only repeats the position that it is the decision of the global headquarters.

 

If the division and sale is an unavoidable procedure according to the company's policy, employees should also actively respond to seek rights."