A Seoul appeals court on Friday ruled against a group of former Ssangyong Motor Co. employees who filed a lawsuit against the company in 2010 to invalidate the massive layoffs the previous year.

The Seoul High Court's decision was in line with the Supreme Court's 2014 ruling that said the layoffs were legitimate due to an "urgent management need." Overturning the appeals court's initial decision against the company, the top court sent the case to the appellate court for retrial.

In Friday's ruling, the court highlighted the financial predicament Ssangyong suffered at the time of the layoffs, saying the crisis was a "continuous and structural" one.

The court also noted that the automaker did take the due steps to avoid the layoffs, such as freezing wages, recommending employees take turns going on leave, accepting voluntary retirements and downsizing its subcontractors.

Ssangyong cut 2,646 jobs, approximately 37 percent of the total workforce, in April 2009 after it was put under court receivership in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. Since then, some of the workers have been waging a legal battle to return to work.

Meanwhile, Ssangyong Motor Co., the local unit of Indian auto conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., decided late last year to "gradually" reinstate those, who had to leave in the wake of the 2009 restructuring efforts.

The decision came in accordance with a deal reached between the carmaker, the head of the dismissed workers and the leader of the company's labor union. The agreement put an end to the years-long labor dispute that plagued the country's smallest carmaker. (Yonhap)