COVID-19 'Job Coexistence', President Moon Visits Walkerhill Hotel

Urging Employment Retention Through Economic Actors' Solidarity to Overcome Job Crisis... President Moon Promises Government's Comprehensive Support Measures

[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Jeong-min] On the morning of the 29th, President Moon Jae-in attended the 'On-site Meeting for Overcoming COVID-19 and Maintaining Employment' held at Walkerhill Hotel in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, encouraging stakeholders in the hotel industry.

President Moon personally visited the site to evaluate the hotel industry, which was hit hard by COVID-19, for choosing to protect jobs rather than resorting to restructuring. The event was organized under the theme "Job Crisis, We Can Overcome It Together."

At the event, President Moon urged attendees to maintain corporate employment and emphasized the government's priority support commitment. Han Jeong-woo, the Blue House Press Secretary, explained, "At the 5th Emergency Economic Meeting, President Moon decided on special measures to swiftly respond to employment shocks and protect citizens' jobs," adding, "He announced that companies maintaining employment will receive maximum support and that blind spots will be drastically reduced."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

President Moon encouraged the hotel industry, including labor and management at Walkerhill Hotel, expressing his intention to continuously expand employment retention subsidies that compensate up to 90% of leave allowances. He conveyed that through programs such as the rapid support program for unpaid leave workers, the government will actively support maintaining employment.

In particular, President Moon expressed the government's determination to create detailed 'support policies for employment retention' to provide timely and appropriate assistance so that the sacrifices and concessions of labor and management to protect jobs will not be in vain. He repeatedly urged all economic actors to unite in the spirit of 'solidarity and coexistence' to protect jobs against the upcoming widespread employment shocks.

Meanwhile, government officials attending the event included Lee Jae-gap, Minister of Employment and Labor; Park Yang-woo, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Moon Sung-hyun, Chairman of the Economic, Social and Labor Council; and Kim Yong-gi, Vice Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Jobs. From the National Assembly, Han Jeong-ae, the Democratic Party lawmaker and ranking member of the Environment and Labor Committee, and Shin Dong-geun, Democratic Party lawmaker and ranking member of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, participated.

From the hotel sector, participants included Kang Seok-yoon, Chairman of the National Tourism and Service Labor Union; Yoo Yong-jong, President of the Korea Hotel Association; Hwang Il-moon, CEO of Walkerhill Hotel; Nicholas Lacy, General Manager of Grand Hyatt Incheon; Kwon Ik-beom, CEO of Parnas Hotel; and Choi Nan-joo, General Manager of The Plaza Hotel. The event featured presentations by Chairman Kang on the hotel industry's joint labor-management agreement cases and by CEO Hwang on the Walkerhill labor-management agreement case.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.