POSCO Labor and Management Agree on 2020 Wage Freeze

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] POSCO labor and management have agreed to freeze wages for 2020.

The POSCO Labor Union, the representative union for negotiations at POSCO, announced that the union members approved the '2020 Wage Agreement Company Proposal' with a 93.44% approval rate in a vote.

The approved company proposal includes, besides the wage freeze, ▲ job security ▲ issuance of traditional market gift certificates worth 500,000 KRW ▲ improvements to childbirth and childcare systems ▲ suspension of work stoppages.

On the 11th, the POSCO Labor Union held a delegates' meeting and decided to delegate this year's wage negotiations to the company to overcome the early management crisis caused by the domestic and international economic crisis due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). The company prepared the '2020 Wage Agreement Proposal' and delivered it to the union on the 13th.

Considering the deterioration of business performance this year, POSCO decided to freeze the base wage but not to artificially adjust employment to alleviate employees' job insecurity caused by the management crisis due to COVID-19.

Additionally, to boost employee morale and revitalize the local economy, the company decided to provide traditional market gift certificates worth 500,000 KRW.

Furthermore, as part of its role as a corporate citizen participating in solving the low birthrate social issue, the company increased the first childbirth incentive from 1,000,000 KRW to 2,000,000 KRW, established a new adoption support fund of 2,000,000 KRW to improve social awareness of adoption and celebrate new family formation, and expanded the child scholarship, previously available from kindergarten, to cover children aged 1 to 3 attending daycare centers.

Moreover, although work stoppages paying 70% of the average wage have been in effect since June, due to recent recovery in order volume and a decrease in the number of work stoppage sites, and considering the efforts of employees at the forefront of overcoming the management crisis, the company decided to suspend the work stoppages.

POSCO labor and management plan to hold a signing ceremony at the Pohang headquarters on the 1st to conclude the 2020 wage agreement.

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