"Labor-Management Win-Win in Every Crisis"... 8 Companies Selected for Ministry of Employment and Labor's 'Labor-Management Culture Award'

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced a total of eight companies selected as winners of the 2020 Labor-Management Culture Awards.

The Labor-Management Culture Awards recognize companies that practice excellent labor-management culture based on coexistence and cooperation. This year, two companies received the Presidential Award, three received the Prime Minister's Award, and three received the Ministerial Award.

According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor on the 4th, the prestigious Presidential Award was given to KT Hitel and Daeyu A-Tech. The Prime Minister's Award went to Ajin Industrial, TIC, and Korea International Cooperation Agency, while the Ministerial Award was given to Hyundai Department Store, Jungseok Chemical, and Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation.

KT Hitel, which received the Presidential Award, experienced severe labor-management conflicts during a management crisis, undergoing four consecutive years of restructuring from 2002.

However, after determining that disputes would benefit neither labor nor management, both sides worked together to achieve sustainable growth, including business normalization and improved sales performance since 2013.

Over the past six years, employment increased by 54%, and the company has been striving to expand good jobs by creating 390 youth jobs.

Daeyu A-Tech maintained employment through a labor-management agreement in 2009 amid management difficulties by implementing a 5% wage cut and rotating leave. This year, amid the COVID-19 crisis, the labor union proactively proposed a wage freeze to share the burden.

Last year, the company invested 4.5 billion KRW in its own training center to conduct regular employee education and workshops, and holds biannual cooperative meetings with partner companies to provide education on mutual growth and win-win cooperation.

This year’s Labor-Management Culture Awards received applications from 23 companies out of 115 companies selected as excellent labor-management culture companies from 2018 to 2020. Twelve companies that passed the document screening by a panel of labor-management experts were evaluated through case presentations, and eight were finally selected.

The awards ceremony will be held next month at the 'Government Awards Ceremony for Labor-Management Culture Merit and Regional Labor-Management-Civil-Government Cooperation Merit.'

Awarded companies will receive benefits for the next three years, including exemption from regular labor inspections, preferential interest rates on bank loans, and priority support from the industrial accident fund when purchasing industrial accident prevention facilities and equipment.

Ryu Kyung-hee, Director of Labor-Management Cooperation Policy at the Ministry of Employment and Labor, stated, "The cases of the awarded companies showed how important it is to cooperate with a spirit of labor-management coexistence during the difficult times of COVID-19," adding, "We will continue to support companies so that they can overcome crises and leap forward based on a foundation of win-win labor-management culture."

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