'Saneon with 100 million won annual salary faces mass resignations over "Busan-bound"... September public recruitment underway'

[Asia Economy Reporter Buaeri] KDB Industrial Bank, which is experiencing an 'exodus of talent' due to the mass resignation of frontline employees, is set to recruit new entry-level clerks in the second half of the year.

According to the financial sector on the 9th, Industrial Bank recently announced a bid for the '2023 New Entry-Level Clerk Recruitment Agency Service' on the Public Procurement Service's Nara Marketplace. According to the announcement, Industrial Bank plans to post the recruitment notice from next month 8th to 22nd and conduct document evaluations by the end of September. The recruitment process will proceed with a written exam on October 22, followed by an online aptitude test, first interview, and second interview.

The number of recruits has not yet been finalized, but it is expected to be similar to or slightly higher than the usual double-digit recruitment of around 50 to 60 people. This is because the outflow of personnel at Industrial Bank has been accelerating recently.

It has been identified that 76 employees resigned from Industrial Bank in the first half of this year alone. According to the Industrial Bank labor union's tally, excluding employees under the wage peak system, a total of 34 employees resigned in the first half of this year, including 23 general staff and 11 professional staff. This number approaches the usual annual resignation figures. From 2017 to 2021, over the past five years, an average of 28 general staff and 19 professional staff resigned each year. Including employees currently undergoing resignation procedures, the number of retirees this year is expected to increase further.

Industrial Bank, known as a 'divine workplace' with an average annual salary exceeding 100 million KRW, is experiencing internal turmoil due to the recent relocation plan to Busan that surfaced under the Yoon Seok-yeol administration. The Yoon government, emphasizing regional balanced development as a key pledge, promised to relocate Industrial Bank's headquarters to Busan. Newly appointed Industrial Bank Chairman Kang Seok-hoon also expressed his intention to expedite the Busan relocation during a recent report to the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee. In response to Democratic Party lawmaker Park Jae-ho's question about whether the relocation to Busan is targeted for 2028, Chairman Kang replied, "It is set to be implemented as soon as possible."

Labor-management conflicts over the Busan relocation at Industrial Bank continue. Since Chairman Kang's appointment, the Industrial Bank labor union has been protesting against the Busan relocation for over 50 days. About 500 union members and employees gather every morning in the headquarters lobby to hold free speech sessions. An Industrial Bank union official stated, "We will continue our actions to support the general strike in the financial sector scheduled for September 16." The National Financial Industry Labor Union (Financial Union) has announced a general strike on the 16th of next month, demanding a 6.1% wage increase and other issues. The Financial Union is expected to demand fair compensation, expansion of new hires, improvement of the wage peak system, opposition to the relocation of national policy banks to local areas, and reinstatement of dismissed executives through the strike.

Within Industrial Bank, concerns are also emerging about the A-match (recruitment among financial public enterprises) that will intensify next month. A representative from Industrial Bank said, "Usually, when the A-match takes place in the second half of the year, some people leave, but this year, due to the Busan relocation rumor, the outflow of personnel is expected to be higher than usual," adding, "There is also a possibility that competitiveness in new recruitment may be lower compared to other financial public enterprises."

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