Hyundai Motor has decided to offer some of its high school-educated office employees the opportunity to switch to production jobs early next year.
The company has already started recruiting candidates and plans to select 58 out of 554 eligible candidates for the job transition by February next year.
These employees are referred to as "Gu-samujik (former office workers)" within Hyundai Motor and are those who joined the company before June 2000. Prior to 2000, Hyundai Motor hired college-educated general employees and high school-educated office employees separately. Since June 2000, the two groups have been unified under general employees.
The upcoming shift to production jobs is only for these workers, not the entire workforce.
Gu-samujik employees prefer to work in production because they are promoted at a slower pace than college graduates, and they are concerned about their retirement age if they are promoted late. This transfer was also reportedly requested by the labor union during this year's wage bargaining.
Hyundai Motor categorizes its employees into two groups: managers and managers in charge. Employees who are promoted to a manager in charge automatically leave the union. However, production workers remain union members until they retire.
Unionized workers have a guaranteed retirement age as per the collective bargaining agreement. If they work until the age of 60 and utilize the 'skilled worker reemployment system,' they can work for one more year as a contractor after retirement. Unionized workers also get paid for working on holidays and receive higher wages.
Gu-samujik employees have been transitioned into production roles before. The company had previously introduced a one-time special transfer program in 2012, and there have been additional transfers in 2019 and 2021 due to labor-management agreements.
This article was originally published on Dec. 1, 2023.