By Lee Hyo-sik
Unionized workers at 14 affiliates of Hyundai Motor Group are pushing to organize a group-wide solidarity strike as part of efforts to press the management to accept their demands regarding the scope of “ordinary wages.”
The union has been demanding that the company include all types of bonuses paid to workers as ordinary wages, but the management has refused, opting to have the court decide the extent of ordinary wages.
The definition of ordinary wages is crucial for the union and management because it is the basis for the calculation of overtime pay, severance payments and other forms of remuneration.
With both sides poles apart, Korea’s largest automaker will likely grapple with the prolonged uneasy labor-management relations.
According to Hyundai Motor Group, Monday, the unions of its 14 subsidiaries, including Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors and Hyundai Steel, have decided to ask the National Labor Relations Commission to mediate talks between labor and management. The unions plan to do so by April 30.
Unionized workers here normally take labor-management disputes to the commission, a prerequisite for organizing a full-blown strike. If the mediation fails, unions can take collective actions.
On April 17, the 14 labor unions held a rally in front of the group headquarters in southern Seoul, calling on the management to sit down with union leaders for talks and include all kinds of bonuses as ordinary wages. The unions established a solidarity council to more effectively pressure the company to accept their demands.
“What unions plan to do is to ask the commission to arbitrate talks with the management,” a Hyundai Motor Group spokesman said. “At this moment, we do not know whether unionized workers will go on strike or not. So, we have nothing to comment on the matter.”
He said if the unions decide to stage a walkout, the company will take measures to normalize the labor-management relations.
Over the past few months, Hyundai labor and management have failed to narrow their differences over by how much salaries be raised and other pending issues. Union leaders have asked the management about how it will expand the scope of ordinary wages.
While refusing to deal with the thorny matter, however, the company only proposed changes to the current wage system, saying that it wants to introduce a performance-based wage system to reduce labor costs.
Hyundai now uses a seniority-based system, which increases wages automatically each year, regardless of hourly production.
The management has said the extent of ordinary wages should be decided by the court, not by the labor union or by management.
In January, the Seoul Central District Court ruled that only regularly paid, daily-counted bonuses can be regarded as part of ordinary wages.
The court dismissed the union’s claim that all bonuses paid periodically, including transport, vacation stipends and cash gifts given before traditional national holidays, should be included as ordinary wages.
In defiance, the union appealed the case to the Seoul High Court on March 29.