Hyundai Motor officials and union leaders walk out of a conference room.[Yonhap News Photo]
Unionized workers at South Korea's leading carmaker Hyundai Motor have reached a provisional wage agreement with their management but failed to narrow differences over a new peak wage system.
The agreement, which came on late Wednesday, will be put to a vote by union members on Friday. Hyundai Motor workers have staged a series of partial strikes from July 19 that cost about 1.47 trillion won (1.3 billion US dollars) in lost production.
On Wednesday, union leaders agreed on a base monthly pay increase of 58,000 won, 350 percent of their base monthly payment and an additional 3.3 million won in performance incentives. Each employee would get 10 shares and 200,000 won in gift vouchers.
There were differences, however, over a peak wage system freezes the wages of workers aged 59 years old and lowers that of 60-year-old workers by 10 percent. The company proposed cutting the wages of employees aged 59 and 60 years old by 10 percent while the union insists on raising the retirement age.
Hyundai Motor's union is notorious for its militant activity. For decades, strikes have been an annual event, prompting the company to increase production overseas. Last year the company posted an operating profit of some 6.37 trillion won, down 15.8 percent from a year ago.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
