Financial Labor Union Approves Strike Vote... Secures Authority for General Strike

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] The National Financial Industry Labor Union (Financial Union) has passed a strike authorization vote among its members.

According to the Financial Union on the 3rd, the vote held the previous day resulted in an overwhelming 92.47% approval. With this, the Financial Union has legally secured the right to engage in strike and other collective actions.

Out of a total of 90,151 union members, 66,045 (73.26%) participated in the vote. Among them, 61,075 voted in favor. The Financial Union stated, "Although the turnout was somewhat low, considering the 30% remote work recommendation during the Level 4 social distancing, virtually most members participated in the vote."

Since submitting this year's negotiation agenda to management in March, the Financial Union has undergone 18 rounds of practical labor-management negotiations, 5 rounds of delegation negotiations, 4 rounds of representative negotiations, and 2 rounds of Central Labor Relations Commission (CLRC) mediation, but ultimately failed to narrow the differences.

Earlier, on the 2nd of last month, the Financial Union and the Financial Industry Employers' Council attended the 2nd CLRC mediation meeting but failed to reach an agreement on the core issue of wage increase rates. Since the start of CLRC mediation, the Financial Union has demanded a 4.3% increase for regular employees and 8.6% for low-wage groups (those earning less than 80% of the general regular employees' wage level). However, the employers proposed a 1.2% increase, showing a significant gap between the two sides. The CLRC proposed a 2.2% compromise, considering the banking sector's record-high net profit in 2018 (15.6 trillion KRW), the wage increase rate at that time (2.6%), and this year's performance. However, neither labor nor management accepted this, leading the union to secure the right to strike.

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