Delivery companies worry as workers threaten to strike

Members of the Taekbae Union hold press conference at the union's office in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, on Jan. 15 threatening to launch a strike if parcel-delivery firms do not improve working conditions for delivery drivers. / Yonhap

By Kim Jae-heun

Taekbae Union, representing delivery drivers here, has announced that it will hold a strike next Wednesday if parcel-delivery firms fail to come with measures to improve working conditions.

The threat triggered concerns of a serious backlog in deliveries during the busy Lunar New Year holiday from Feb. 11 to Feb. 14. The government has asked people to send gifts to their family and relatives instead of visiting them in different parts of the country during the holiday to prevent a further COVID-19 spike in the country.

Parcel-delivery firms have promised to hire more workers to divide the work into classifying and loading packages onto vehicles, and delivering parcels to customers. Currently, delivery drivers are responsible for both, which has been cited as a major reason behind long work hours that have been blamed for the deaths of 16 parcel-delivery drivers last year alone.

“Five delivery workers have presumably died from overwork since last December and they were all employees of Hanjin Transportation and Lotte Global Logistics. Not a single worker has been added to replace the five drivers who passed away,” a Taekbae Union official said.

“We will make sure we receive a clear promise from the firms before next Monday, when things will start getting busy before the Lunar New Year holiday. Parcel-delivery drivers will undoubtedly suffer when package volume increases and the firms are not offering any measures to deal with the problem,” the official added.

The No. 2 logistics firm, Hanjin Transportation, announced last October that it will stop delivering products after 10 p.m., but the union said the pledge has yet to be put into practice.

Hanjin said it employs 300 workers and plans to increase the number to 1,000 by March. The company said, however, that this process will take time.

“We want to hire more people, but distribution centers are located on the outskirts of cities and many people do not want to work far away from their homes,” an official at one parcel-delivery firm said.

Lotte also promised to hire 1,000 more workers, but has only hired 100 more so far.

CJ Logistics, the No.1 player in the domestic market, hired 3,000 more workers so far, which is 1,000 short of its promise to hire 4,000 additional employees. It is also facing criticism for handing over additional labor costs to subcontractors and delivery workers.