Gwangju Mayor Kang Gijeong Rushes to Resolve Daewoo Winia Crisis

Attendance at the Meeting of Partner Companies Hosted by the Minister of Employment and Labor

Active Cooperation Requested for Overcoming Crises Including Designation of Employment Crisis Areas

Gwangju Metropolitan City is taking the lead in securing prompt support at the pan-government level regarding the Daeyu Winia Group incident.

According to Gwangju City on the 14th, Mayor Kang Gi-jung attended the Daeyu Winia partner companies on-site meeting held at the Hanam Industrial Complex Management Corporation.

At this meeting, he proposed to Lee Jeong-sik, Minister of Employment and Labor, ▲designation of Gwangsan-gu as an employment crisis area to resolve the Daeyu Winia incident ▲selection for the ‘2024 Regional Innovation Project’ contest and national funding support, a regional industry-customized job creation support project.

Through this, the city plans to proactively respond to the urgent employment crisis faced by partner companies and workers affected by the corporate rehabilitation procedure (court receivership) application, aiming to stabilize employment by supporting the advancement and regrowth of the home appliance companies in crisis, and enhance reemployment and employment recovery resilience through rapid linkage to employment services.

Mayor Kang said, “The five affiliates of the Daeyu Winia Group that applied for court receivership account for 22% of the home appliance industry in the Gwangju area. There are 133 affected companies, 67 billion KRW in unpaid wages, and about 6,000 workers facing potential unemployment risk,” adding, “Since the Daeyu Winia incident could trigger a major crisis in the regional economy, we ask the Ministry of Employment and Labor to actively cooperate in overcoming the crisis, including promptly designating the area as an employment crisis zone at the pan-government level.”

Minister Lee Jeong-sik of the Ministry of Employment and Labor stated, “We will actively review and devise support measures regarding the proposals made by Gwangju City to overcome the Daeyu Winia-related crisis and support the employment retention and livelihood of workers at partner companies,” emphasizing, “It is most important that labor, management, government, and civic stakeholders share the will to quickly overcome the crisis for mutual growth and sustainable development, so let us come together and discuss practical measures to overcome the crisis.”

The meeting chaired by the Minister of Employment and Labor was organized to proactively seek response measures with the government, local governments, and related agencies alongside affected partner companies, to prevent liquidity crises caused by unpaid delivery payments and surging inventory from leading to worker damages such as unpaid wages and employment instability.

Meanwhile, the number of affected partner companies related to Daeyu Winia in Gwangju alone reaches 133, with unpaid payments amounting to 43.6 billion KRW, inventory valued at 39.3 billion KRW, and unpaid wages of affiliate workers totaling 67 billion KRW.

Gwangju City plans to support an emergency management stabilization fund of 5 billion KRW secured through supplementary budgeting to prevent the collapse of the Gwangju home appliance industry and mass layoffs of workers in advance. Additionally, the city has implemented ▲a one-year extension of repayment periods for management stabilization and export promotion funds ▲a one-year principal repayment deferral for structural advancement and distribution structure improvement funds ▲special guarantees for Daeyu Winia partner companies, as well as tax support measures such as extension of local tax payment deadlines and collection deferrals, and support for responding to energy supply interruptions.

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