SK Inno Labor and Management Reach Collective Agreement in Record Short Time with Highest Approval Rate

Labor and Management Agree on 'Strong ESG Implementation' for Sustainable Growth

Kim Jun, President of SK Innovation (first from the left), Lee Seong-hoon, Chairman of the Labor Union, Kim Jae-ho, Vice Chairman, and Cho Kyung-mok, President of SK Energy, are taking a photo after the 2021 Collective Agreement signing ceremony held on the 22nd, connecting SK Building in Seorin-dong, Seoul, and SK Innovation Ulsan Complex via video conference. Photo by SK Innovation

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] SK Innovation's labor and management reached a tentative agreement in just three weeks, the shortest period ever, during this year's collective bargaining agreement (CBA) renewal negotiations.

On the 22nd, SK Innovation announced that it held the '2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement Signing Ceremony' by connecting the SK Building in Seorin-dong, Seoul, and the SK Innovation Ulsan Complex via video conference.

SK Innovation's labor and management reached a tentative agreement just three weeks after their first meeting in Ulsan on the 16th of last month to start negotiations. Considering that CBAs usually take at least 3 to 4 months or more due to the many issues to be addressed, unlike wage negotiations, this negotiation period was drastically shortened.

In particular, this CBA recorded the highest voter turnout of 95.8% and the highest approval rate of 88.5% in SK Innovation's CBA history. This is an unusually high approval rate rarely seen in typical domestic labor-management relations.

In September 2017, when SK Innovation's labor and management reached an agreement on wage and collective bargaining, they agreed to establish a mature and advanced labor-management culture to promote the company's growth and the happiness of its members, agreeing on innovative issues such as wage increases linked to inflation and the establishment of a social contribution fund amounting to 1% of the base salary.

Meanwhile, in this CBA, SK Innovation decided to actively participate in and strongly implement ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management as an execution plan for an advanced labor-management culture to create a 'New SK Innovation.'

SK Innovation's labor and management judged that realizing the common value of 'enhancing the happiness of members' is important, and from the perspective of the 'three future-oriented core values' of value, balance, and stability, they agreed to improve the welfare systems proposed by the labor union. They also agreed to create a 'labor-management joint task force (TF)' to review the necessary changes to shift the current 4-team 3-shift work system to a 4-team 2-shift system to improve members' work engagement and quality of life.

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