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| KB Kookmin Bank union leader Park Hong-bae, left, holds a complaint with Korea Financial Industry Union head Huh Kwon at the Seoul Southern Labor Administration in Seoul, Wednesday. / Courtesy of Korea Financial Industry Union |
The feud between KB Kookmin Bank workers and management is getting extreme. Representatives of the two sides continued talks to settle labor issues even after the Jan. 8 strike, but have yet to reach an agreement.
The situation is now only getting worse as the union lodged a complaint against management Wednesday for breaching collective bargaining, and the union plans for another strike in the near future.
Management already yielded to the union's demand to pay a 300 percent incentive just before the Jan. 8 strike. The union and management also managed to agree on a few core issues during the Jan. 11 negotiation, including introducing a voluntary retirement program for senior workers.
They continued the talks for further issues on Jan. 13 and 14, but failed to narrow the gap on other issues such as introduction timing for the peak wage system that involves a gradual salary reduction for senior employees and the pay-band system that caps the wages of employees who fail to attain a promotion within a designated period of time.
Union workers of KB Kookmin Bank said immediately after the Jan. 14 talks that they will also take further actions, including filing a petition with the National Human Rights Commission.
They also said they will stage another strike for three days on Jan. 30 if management does not comply with their remaining demands.
"KB Kookmin Bank will do its best to conclude its talks with workers before they go on strike for three days from Jan. 30," a KB Kookmin Bank official said.
"The impact will be enormous if they stage a three-day strike just before the Lunar New Year holiday. Labor and management are settling key issues step by step. I believe we will conclude the talks before the holidays."
According to the union, about 10,000 KB Kookmin workers across the country participated in the one-day rally on Jan. 8. It was two-thirds of the bank's total union workers.
It was also the bank's first strike in 19 years.
The bank said it stayed open for business as usual at all 10,057 branches across the country during the Jan. 8 strike but some face-to-face services could be limited due to the strike.
It designated the lender's 411 branches as emergency footholds where customers can get face-to-face services such as private and corporate loans as well as mortgages. Of the 411 branches, 271 are located in Seoul and the surrounding area.
The bank also formed a taskforce countering the current situation to monitor its branches across the country. Customers are exempt from service fees at bank windows and ATMs.
The nation's largest lender has about 31.1 million customers in Korea
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