By Kim Jae-won
Bank unions voted to stage a strike against the move to implement the meritocratic pay system and easier layoffs, their umbrella union said Wednesday.
The Korea Financial Industry Union said that its 79,068 members, or 95.7 percent of those who participated in the vote, supported the strike scheduled for September in opposition to the meritocratic salary system and the government's intervention in the banking business. The union said that 87 percent of its 95,168 members cast their ballots.
Kim Moon-ho, head of the union, vowed to fight against employers, encouraging members to resist the move toward easy layoffs.
"With a landslide support for the strike, our 100,000 members declined to become the first victims of the enforced layoff system against underperformers," said Kim in a statement. "We will prepare for the strike to crush the government and the employers' plan to implement easier layoffs and meritocratic payment system."
Bank employees' support for the strike comes amid the employers' and the government's push to adopt meritocracy payments in workplaces, as part of a strategy to strengthen competitiveness in the industry. Currently, salaries are linked to years working while bonuses are given based on the performance of their branch or team.
The Korea Federation of Banks (KFB), an association of the nation's top 20 banks and state financial firms, said that it will announce its guidelines on the meritocratic salary system later this week, regardless of the union's decision to strike. The federation said that it ordered a consulting firm, Mercer Korea, to write the guidelines, and the results will come within a few days.
The KFB declined to elaborate in detail on the guidelines, but market watchers said that the outlines include expanding the wage gap between high and low performers in the same position by up to 40 percent. They are designed to be applied to all ranks of employees, seeking to boost competition, according to industry sources familiar with the matter.
Banks are one of the last workplaces resisting the performance-based salary system while most manufacturing firms have already adopted it since the Asian financial crisis, which changed the landscape of the nation's employment, office regulations and culture hugely.
After experiencing massive layoffs during the economic turmoil, most Korean companies do not provide lifelong employment anymore while employees also do not expect such treatment.
Bank unions voted to stage a strike against the move to implement the meritocratic pay system and easier layoffs, their umbrella union said Wednesday.
The Korea Financial Industry Union said that its 79,068 members, or 95.7 percent of those who participated in the vote, supported the strike scheduled for September in opposition to the meritocratic salary system and the government's intervention in the banking business. The union said that 87 percent of its 95,168 members cast their ballots.
Kim Moon-ho, head of the union, vowed to fight against employers, encouraging members to resist the move toward easy layoffs.
"With a landslide support for the strike, our 100,000 members declined to become the first victims of the enforced layoff system against underperformers," said Kim in a statement. "We will prepare for the strike to crush the government and the employers' plan to implement easier layoffs and meritocratic payment system."
Bank employees' support for the strike comes amid the employers' and the government's push to adopt meritocracy payments in workplaces, as part of a strategy to strengthen competitiveness in the industry. Currently, salaries are linked to years working while bonuses are given based on the performance of their branch or team.
The Korea Federation of Banks (KFB), an association of the nation's top 20 banks and state financial firms, said that it will announce its guidelines on the meritocratic salary system later this week, regardless of the union's decision to strike. The federation said that it ordered a consulting firm, Mercer Korea, to write the guidelines, and the results will come within a few days.
The KFB declined to elaborate in detail on the guidelines, but market watchers said that the outlines include expanding the wage gap between high and low performers in the same position by up to 40 percent. They are designed to be applied to all ranks of employees, seeking to boost competition, according to industry sources familiar with the matter.
Banks are one of the last workplaces resisting the performance-based salary system while most manufacturing firms have already adopted it since the Asian financial crisis, which changed the landscape of the nation's employment, office regulations and culture hugely.
After experiencing massive layoffs during the economic turmoil, most Korean companies do not provide lifelong employment anymore while employees also do not expect such treatment.
