Courier Industry Reaches Agreement Just Before General Strike, Easing Concerns Over Lunar New Year Logistics Crisis

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] The delivery labor union and management, who had been in conflict over the responsibility for sorting work, which was cited as the cause of overwork deaths among delivery workers, have reached an agreement, alleviating concerns about a 'logistics crisis' ahead of the Lunar New Year.

According to the National Delivery Workers' Union on the 30th, the union conducted a general vote among members in seven branches nationwide, including Seoul and Busan, yesterday morning to approve the tentative agreement, with a turnout of 89% and 86% approval. The union, which had originally planned to hold a strike rally, instead held a victory resolution meeting. The union stated, "A major movement to fundamentally change the overwork structure in the delivery field has begun," and "With the approval of the tentative agreement, we announce the end of the strike and the return to work starting from the 30th."

The delivery labor union and management reached the tentative agreement on the 28th after six hours of discussion, with the participation of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties. The union held an emergency expanded central executive committee meeting to proceed with the approval process and decided to hold a general assembly for all members to approve the tentative agreement by the morning of the 29th.

Unlike the first social agreement, this tentative agreement reportedly involved direct participation from private delivery companies. While the first social agreement reached on the 21st included the Korea Integrated Logistics Association representing major delivery companies such as CJ Logistics, Lotte Delivery, and Hanjin Delivery, this time, executives from each delivery company directly signed the agreement, effectively achieving the binding labor-management agreement that the delivery union had demanded as a condition for withdrawing the strike, according to the union.

Additionally, the agreement set a firm deadline of February 4th for the completion of the deployment of personnel for sorting work, which delivery companies had committed to last year, and allowed verification and investigation of the actual deployment status through the social agreement body. In particular, Lotte Delivery and Hanjin Delivery will conduct pilot projects to improve the efficiency of sorting personnel deployment by concentrating and monitoring them at specific terminals. Furthermore, the parties agreed to complete price negotiations by May and to pay delivery workers who inevitably perform sorting work at least the minimum wage.

Earlier on the 21st of this month, the delivery industry labor and management had agreed on the first social agreement, which stipulated that sorting work is the responsibility of delivery companies. However, the union declared it would resume a general strike, claiming that sorting personnel were not being smoothly deployed on-site, forcing delivery workers back into sorting work. The delivery union stated, "It has been confirmed that delivery companies issued official letters to branches or sales offices completely denying the agreement," and "The companies broke the agreement to take responsibility for sorting work just five days after signing the agreement."

Originally, the delivery union planned to hold a strike rally this morning and proceed with the strike. The union represents about 5,500 delivery workers nationwide, approximately 11% of the total 50,000 delivery workers. However, with the rapid increase in non-face-to-face consumption due to COVID-19 and the surge in logistics volume ahead of the Lunar New Year, a strike by delivery workers would have been a burden for both delivery companies and the government. In fact, it is known that the government and ruling party actively persuaded the union and delivery companies the day before.

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