[Courtesy of Korean Air]
Korean Air said Thursday it has launched a legal battle to nullify a vote by pilots for a rare strike at South Korea's largest carrier.
The company said a court injunction has been sought against the vote, along with a separate libel suit against union leaders for slandering chairman Cho Yang-ho with groundless allegations.
Last week a proposed walkout was approved by 1,106 out of 1,845 eligible voters. Pilots had voted for weeks, demanding a 37 percent hike in wages instead of a 1.9 percent pay increase proposed by the company.
The pilots have two unions, including the bigger Korean Air Pilot Union and a smaller one established several years ago. They have vowed to step up their labour action gradually.
Korean Air said the vote was illegal because it was carried out without full approval from the smaller union.
The company also said union leaders violated the principle of anonymity by using voting papers with different colors and illegally extended a voting period three times.
The vote gives legal ground for the pilots to engage in labor disputes, but South Korea's airline industry is officially designated as critical to the public, making it almost impossible for pilots to stage a full strike. Striking pilots are required to maintain 80 percent of flight operations.
The pilots staged a four-day walkout in 2005. They are relatively paid well, but they insisted their payment was far smaller than that of foreign airlines which have scouted experienced Korean pilots offering a much thicker pay package.
They have also accused the company of failing to improve its corporate governance and poor working conditions.
Korean Air faces a bumpy ride due to growing competition from rivals in China and the Middle East as well as budget carriers.
On currency-related gains, Korean Air posted a profit of 92.1 billion won (74.5 billion US dollars) in the fourth quarter of last year, a turnaround from a loss of 272 billion won a year earlier. For the full year of 2015, its net loss widened to 703 billion won from the previous year's loss of 457.8 billion won.
아주경제 임장원 기자 = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
