Game firm workers setting up labor unions

By Baek Byung-yeul

The logo for union of Nexon

Employees of game companies here are rushing to form unions to secure greater leverage when negotiating for wages and other work conditions, according to industry officials Thursday.

The game firm work environment is known to be a workplace where employees work for long hours day and night, with many of them unable to strike a work-life balance.

Workers of Nexon, one of Korea's major game developers, established a union Monday for the first time among game firms here. Two days later, employees from another game firm Smilegate also launched their union.

Both unions are under the chemical, textile and food industry division of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. The unions claimed their members are working in poor conditions and called for the abolition of the comprehensive wage system.

The comprehensive system refers to a monthly salary that includes a fixed amount to cover overtime. It is illegal for a company to make its employees work more than 52 hours a week even if the workers agree to the wage system, but many companies here have abused the system to avoid paying for additional overtime.

“Korea's game industry has expanded in value to 12 trillion won ($10.68 billion), but employees have poor working conditions,” the Nexon union said in a statement, Monday. “Under the comprehensive wage system, we have not been paid for working overtime and only received transportation fees when working weekends. Due to crunch mode, overtime is part of our everyday life.”

Game firms here are also notorious for crunch mode, which refers to working excessively long hours to meet a deadline for a new product. It has been two months since the country's statutory maximum working hours were shortened to a maximum 52 hours a week, but workers said firms were still pushing them to work long hours while maintaining the comprehensive wage system.

Smilegate's labor said it wants to change the crunch mode to work-life-mode. “We decided to establish the union to call for the abolition of the comprehensive wage policy and for the adoption of a flexible working hours system,” it said, Wednesday.

Smilegate, best known for its online shooter “Crossfire,” has nine affiliates and about 2,200 employees. Despite the company recording sales of 571.3 billion won ($511 million) and an operating profit of 377.5 billion won last year, its union said wages remain unchanged.

The union said it will become a trailblazer to break the vicious cycle. “We were treated like machine parts by the company, not game developers.”

Currently more than 300 Nexon employees have joined the company's union. It said it will increase cooperation with other employees in the industry to fight for reforming the “irrational” system.

The move is also supported by politicians. “Game firms have had an enormous impact on the country's economic and cultural development but their employees have worked in poor conditions,” Kim Dong-kyun, deputy spokesman of minor opposition Justice Party said in a statement, Wednesday. “However, it is fair to say that the firms have continued their growth thanks to their workers who are in an unstable employment situation.”