Woowa Bros union, management reach 1st collective bargaining deal

Woowa Brothers' Head of People Division Yi Yoon-jun, right, poses with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions' Chairman of the Fderation of Chemical and Textile and Food Union Workers Shin Hwan-seop after signing a collective bargaining agreement at Startup Square in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. Courtesy of Woowa Brothers

Woowa Brothers, operator of Korea’s largest food-ordering online platform Baedal Minjok, said Friday its labor union and management has signed the two sides' first-ever collective bargaining agreement (CBA) since the company's establishment in 2010.

The CBA, signed a day earlier, came after the company’s employees, including delivery riders and restaurant partners, repeatedly protested against the company for improvement of the workplace environment and reductions in platform usage fees.

According to the company, the head of its People Division Yi Yoon-jun met the chairman of the chemical, textile and food union under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, one of the country’s largest umbrella unions, to sign the CBA on wages, welfare and other collective bargaining issues. The chairman of the company’s labor union, Woowa Union, also joined the signing event at Startup Square in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.

The agreement centered on promoting growth of the country’s delivery industry ecosystem, platform expansion, and finding new areas to break free from entrenched practices in management-labor relationships, the company said.

The agreement has specifically defined scenarios for the company’s operations and drawn consent from both parties on how to cooperate and operate under each scenario. All parties noted that the stable operations of Baedal Minjok is their shared top priority and directly affects the sustainability of the company’s partner restaurants and delivery riders.

Yi said, “I’m particularly pleased that we could include provisions for sustainable development and mutual prosperity in the delivery ecosystem.”

Woowa Brothers posted last year’s earnings on Friday. Sales reached 5.28 trillion won ($3.6 billion), up 22 percent from a year earlier, but operating profit stood at 593 billion won, down 7 percent year-on-year. The largest cost was wages for the riders, which grew 41 percent from a year earlier to reach 3.15 trillion won.