Coupang, other couriers to halt deliveries on Election Day

A Coupang delivery vehicle is parked at a logistics camp in Seoul, May 7. Yonhap

Coupang, often referred to as the "Amazon of Korea" for its extensive services, said Monday it will temporarily stop its popular same-day and next-day "Rocket Delivery" service between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Tuesday to ensure its approximately 20,000 delivery workers have enough time to vote for the next president.

With major courier companies like CJ Logistics and Hanjin already suspending deliveries, Tuesday is expected to become a de facto “no-parcel” day nationwide.

In April, the government designated Election Day as a temporary national holiday to make it easier for the electorate to vote.

However, parcel delivery workers were not among those legally entitled to take the day off. Most are classified as special-type workers — a category that treats them as independent contractors rather than employees under the Labor Standards Act. As a result, many are not entitled to paid holidays or time off to vote.

This is the first time Coupang has suspended its Rocket Delivery service since the service launched in 2014. In both the 2022 presidential election and the 2024 general election, most other major delivery firms designated Election Day as a day off to allow workers to vote. While not legally required, the practice has served as a consensus-based effort to uphold workers' voting rights.

In a statement last month, the parcel delivery union under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the country’s largest labor umbrella, welcomed Coupang’s participation.

“This marks a symbolic turning point — not only for protecting delivery workers' voting rights, but also for improving the harsh working conditions at Coupang,” the union said. “Field delivery workers at Coupang have told us they are incredibly happy, almost to the point of disbelief.”

But the union also criticized the company for fueling an industry-wide race for faster delivery, including seven-day-a-week service.

“We’ve come to realize that the delivery industry’s competition over speed — including seven-day service — not only seriously undermines workers' rights to health and rest, but also effectively strips them of their political rights as citizens.”