LG Chem files ‘preliminary injunction enjoining competitive employment’ to prevent its experienced researcher from joining SK Innovation. 

It has been confirmed that several of the LG Chem battery researchers who moved to SK Innovation have been sued for ‘preliminary injunction enjoining competitive employment.’ This happened due to the recent move by SK Innovation that has been aggressively engaged in recruiting experienced workers.

According to industry sources, some researchers from LG Chemical, who moved to SK Innovation, are in the process of the preliminary injunction enjoining competitive employment. LG Chem seems to have filed such a lawsuit to prevent technology leakage due to the movement of its workforces.

Since last year, SK Innovation has been accelerating investments while building factories in Seosan, Korea, Komárom, Hungary, Changzhou, China, and Georgia, USA. The need for recruitment of experienced workers has increased. In addition to battery makers that the company competes with, the company also has turned its eyes toward the workforce of global chemical companies.

"SK Innovation is rapidly expanding its experienced workforce by investing heavily in the battery business. It seems that the ex-employer has filed a lawsuit to prevent internal personnel from transferring easily to competitors." an industry official said. 
SK Innovation is known to be interested in electrode technology, which is the core of pouch-type batteries. It is one of the most noted categories among various battery experienced workers. It has secured a considerable amount of expertise in coating, another key technology.

Some see that the number of people transferring to SK Innovation from its competitors has been increasing as SK Innovation’s status in the battery industry has been raised. In the petrochemical industry, which has been a long-time cash cow, the industry’s attention has increased as the battery has become a mainstream business. At the beginning of the business, companies hired experienced workers internally; however, the number of people who applied after seeing job announcements has increased significantly. The rumor is that thousands of people hoped to enter the company early this year when the job announcement was released.

Another industry official said, "SK Innovation is among the top players in the high-paid oil-refining industry. Thus, it is a fact that they offer higher pays that LG Chem and Samsung SDI, which are the top battery companies. There is no reason why people won’t be attracted to the company as they are interested enough to hold job applicant meetings.”