Woowa Brothers founder to pay 100 bil. won incentives to employees

Woowa Brothers founder Kim Bong-jin, right, and his wife, Sul Bomi, pose in a picture taken in Seoul, on Feb. 18. Courtesy of Woowa Brothers

By Kim Jae-heun

Woowa Brothers Founder Kim Bong-jin said Thursday he will sell some of his stakes in his sprawling food-delivery company to give 100 billion won ($88 million) in incentive payments in the form of stocks and cash to workers, including delivery drivers.

“Our delivery drivers contributed a lot to turn our company into what it is today. I want to give them a personal gift for all of their efforts up until now prior to the company's advance into the Asian Market,” Kim said in a message to employees.

The incentive will be offered to 1,700 workers hired by Woowa Brothers, Woowahan Youths and the company's overseas branches as of last month. Individual workers are expected to receive around 50 million won ($43,975) worth of stocks depending on their position. Woowahan Youth operates Baemin Riders, which manages delivery workers for food delivery service Baedal Minjok run by Woowa Brothers.

Delivery workers who are not directly employed by Woowa Brothers, but worked over a year and delivered at least 20 orders a day for 200 days, will each receive between 2 million won to 5 million worth of stocks.

Those who do not meet the conditions mentioned above, but have delivered a certain amount of daily orders, will receive 1 million won in cash. The company confirmed there are 1,390 deliver drivers who will receive the incentive payments.

In addition, 830 employees working at delivery specialty store B Mart and contingent workers will receive 1 million won to 1.5 million won each in incentives.

Woowa Brothers said it will send text messages to each worker to inform them of the incentive payments and allocate extra workers at its call center to deal with enquiries.

“Kim's incentive gift to employees is different from his plan to donate half of his fortune to charity. Kim will reveal that plan as soon as he finishes fixing details on how he will donate his assets,” a Woowa Brothers official said.

Meanwhile, Kim and his wife Sul Bomi promised last month to donate half of his wealth, estimated at more than 1 trillion won ($905 million). Kim said the donation will be made through Giving Pledge, a global campaign created by Bill and Melinda Gates.

Kim is the first Korean national to join the global campaign that aims to have the world's wealthiest individuals and families dedicate a majority of their fortune to charity.