Ssangyong Motor

SEOUL, Nov. 9 (Yonhap) -- Ssangyong Motor Co., the local unit of Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., said Wednesday that its net profit in the first nine months of the year jumped to 38.6 billion won (US$34.1 million) on a recent court ruling that excused it from paying wages to workers forced to take unpaid leave. 

The company earlier said its net profit came to 23.04 billion won in the January-September period. 

The additional 15.6 billion won previously set aside as a possible expense has been added to its net profit, the company said in a regulatory filing. 

The addition came after the Supreme Court ruled last Wednesday that the company did not have to pay wages to 459 workers who had been forced into unpaid leave in August 2009, when the automaker was placed under a court receivership. 

The company had then promised to reinstate the workers should there be a rise in its output over the following year. 

A group of 226 workers filed the lawsuit in 2010, arguing they had only agreed to take one-year leave, and are seeking wages for the period of their forced leave after August 2010. 

The Ssangyong Tivoli Air (Photo courtesy of Ssangyong)

The Supreme Court upheld rulings by lower courts, noting the company had agreed to reinstate the workers only if its output and sales recovered enough to do so. 

All 459 workers once forced to take unpaid leave were reinstated as of March 2013. 

With a 38.6 billion-won profit in the first nine months of the year, Ssangyong Motor is widely expected to post a net profit for the whole of 2016, which will mark a turnaround from a net loss of 61.9 billion won last year. 

The company has said its sales jumped 7.1 percent on-year in the first 10 months of the year, with domestic sales growing 5.2 percent and exports jumping 10.7 percent. 

bdk@yna.co.kr