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| Shinsegae Group Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin |
By Park Jae-hyuk
Shinsegae Group will reduce its working hours from 40 to 35 hours a week without wage cut, the retail giant said Friday.
It is the first time that a Korean conglomerate has adopted the 35-hour work week. The move by the nation's 10th-largest conglomerate is expected to affect other businesses here.
Korea has a statutory working week of 40 hours. The government aims to reduce annual working time to 1,800 hours as developed countries. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the annual working time in Korea reaches to 2,113 hours, the second-longest among OECD members.
After Shinsegae's implementation of the new rule next month, its employees will work seven hours a day, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. However, Shinsegae will apply the rule flexibly, considering working patterns of each employee. For example, those who come to their offices at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. can leave at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., respectively.
Workers at department stores, duty free shops and discount chains will also be subject to the new standard. Its E-mart discount stores will close at 11 p.m., an hour earlier than before. Subcontracted workers at the stores will benefit from the reduction of working hours as well.
The Seoul-based company stressed the upcoming working hour reduction will not cause salary cut. It will rather continue to carry out regular wage increase annually.
Korean businesses have felt difficulties in finding the consensus on the wage issue, which can increase their costs, even if they have agreed with the necessity of shorter working hours.
Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Park Yong-maan therefore has urged lawmakers to pass the bill regarding gradual and flexible reduction of working hours, ahead of the minimum wage hike next year, during his frequent visits to the National Assembly this year.
A Shinsegae official said the recent measure is a result of the long-term project that the company started two years ago.
According to the official, Shinsegae analyzed the possible decrease in sales in case it closes its department store an hour earlier. Then it derived a conclusion that it can shorten the business hours of its department stores. The company also studied cases of Denmark and other development countries that adopted the 30-hour working week policy.
In addition, E-mart has allowed pregnant employees to work two hours shorter than before since April last year. Female workers diagnosed as subfertile has been able to take up to six month's leave of absence since March last year.
"As the recent improvement in our policy largely benefits our employees, we expect they will voluntarily work harder to establish a working culture with higher productivity," a Shinsegae official said. "By this, we hope to provide our employees with lives with leisure and work-life balances."
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