hankyoreh

June 4

The Woori Bank union, which has received public financial support, has announced a wage cut deal with management despite objections from its umbrella union, the Korea Financial Industry Union (KFIU). Accordingly, there is growing concern about the impact the deal will have on labor-management relations of other public financial enterprises, including government-run banks. Labor workers are criticizing the Lee administration for interfering in autonomous labor-management relations to promote an advancement plan for companies that have received government money and therefore have no choice but to take the government’s wishes into account.

KFIU issued a statement Monday saying that a provisional industry agreement struck on March 18 was retracted due to objections by the heads of government-run banks. The union continued by saying the Lee administration has been demanding bank labor and management wage cuts. The union claims the administration has illegally interfered in labor-management relations. The Woori Bank union issued a joint labor-management announcement on Friday saying that they agreed to cut employee wages by 5 percent and the wages of new hires by 20 percent.

KFIU head, Yang Byoung-min, said since the Lee administration has been strongly pushing for wage cuts at public corporations in its effort to make South Korea an advanced country, industry-wide negotiations have not been proceeding properly this year. The union says the Financial Services Commission called together the vice heads of public financial institutions last month to say that if the banks could secure a 5 percent wage cut deal in Sept to be retroactive one year, it would reflect in their management evaluation.

The Korea Federation of Banks, part of the industry-wide negotiations in the financial sector, unilaterally terminated talks with the KFIU on Aug 20 and gave its member banks authority to negotiate. Since its founding in 2000, the KFIU has been praised as the model of flexible Korean-style industry-wide negotiations, and had secured a 40-hour work week. This is the first year KFIU has been unsuccessful in negotiating an industry-wide wage deal.

A labor expert says the industry-wide negotiating system has been completely shaken by the Management Association of the Health Industry which had broken off from their position as negotiating partner with Korea Health and Medical Workers’ Union. He is concerned that considerable tensions will be appearing in labor-management relations in response to continuous attempts to weaken the industry-wide negotiating system.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]