Kakao Union Demands Resignation of Next CEO Ryu Young-jun Amid Eat-and-Run Controversy

[Asia Economy Reporter Dongwoo Lee] Ryu Young-jun, the CEO of Kakao Pay who has been nominated as the next CEO of Kakao, recently sold a large amount of Kakao Pay shares along with other executives, prompting the labor union to demand the withdrawal of his nomination. The union has stated that if the nomination is not withdrawn, they are prepared to take the unprecedented step of industrial action.

According to the IT industry on the 9th, the Kakao labor union said that eight executives of Kakao Pay, including CEO Ryu, sold 440,993 shares through a block deal on the day Kakao Pay was included in the KOSPI 200 index last month on the 10th, negatively impacting the stock market and demoralizing employees, thus deeming them unfit to serve as the group’s CEO.

The union pointed out that the executives, including CEO Ryu, sold 90 billion KRW worth of Kakao Pay shares on the same day, earning a profit of 46.9 billion KRW, which led to discussions in the National Assembly about the "Kakao Pay Eat-and-Run Prevention Act," and they must take responsibility for this situation.

The union is also requesting the National Pension Service, a major shareholder holding 7.42% of Kakao shares, to activate the stewardship code and vote against CEO Ryu’s appointment at the shareholders’ meeting.

The union claims that Kakao is ignoring these issues raised by the labor side.

Although Kakao Pay held a company-wide meeting on the 4th, before the union’s statement, to apologize to employees and announced through a press release that it would strengthen responsible management, it has not addressed CEO Ryu’s position.

The union warned that if the company continues to not respond, labor-management relations will inevitably deteriorate. They also argued that if this issue is not resolved quickly, it could escalate to a problem involving founder and Chairman of the Board Kim Beom-su.

Seongwook Seo, chairman of the Kakao labor union, stated, "There has never been a stage of industrial action since the company’s founding, but we may enter that stage.

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