Kia Motors, This Year's Tentative Labor Agreement '58.6% Approval' Passed... Signing Ceremony on the 30th

58.6% Support for Wage Proposal · 55.8% Support for Collective Agreement Proposal

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] Kia Motors' labor and management successfully concluded the 2020 wage and collective bargaining agreement (wage and collective agreement) within the year.

According to Kia Motors on the 29th, the union held a vote on the tentative agreement for the wage and collective agreement, and the majority voted in favor, resulting in final approval. Out of a total of 29,262 union members, 27,050 participated in the vote. The wage proposal received 58.6% approval (15,856 members), and the collective agreement proposal received 55.8% approval (15,092 members).

With the passage of the tentative agreement, Kia Motors has put an end to this year's wage and collective bargaining, which had continued for over four months since the initial meeting in August. The labor and management of Kia Motors plan to hold a signing ceremony for the wage and collective agreement at the Sohari plant on the 30th.

The agreement reached after relay negotiations on the 22nd includes ▲ freezing the base salary and paying 150% performance bonuses ▲ a 1.2 million KRW encouragement bonus ▲ and 1.5 million KRW in traditional market gift certificates. In particular, both labor and management reached a consensus to freeze the base salary for the first time in 11 years since the 2009 financial crisis, acknowledging the crisis situation caused by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

The "restoration of 30 minutes of overtime," which had held up negotiations until the last moment, was agreed upon at a restoration of 25 minutes. In practice, this means increasing extended working hours by 10 minutes and increasing the workload corresponding to the remaining 15 minutes by speeding up work, thereby achieving the effect of extended work hours. Regarding the extension of the retirement age, which had shown a significant difference in positions between labor and management, it was decided to expand and reorganize the existing veteran program.

Since the initial meeting in August, Kia Motors' labor and management held 16 main negotiations. On the 16th of last month, the management proposed a plan at the same level as Hyundai Motors, which had already concluded this year's wage and collective agreement early, but the union repeatedly clashed by demanding the restoration of overtime and extension of the retirement age. During this process, the union declared a breakdown in negotiations and carried out a partial strike for four weeks starting from the 25th of last month. This was the ninth consecutive year of strikes since 2011. The production disruption caused by the four-week partial strike is known to have affected about 47,000 vehicles.

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