Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) labor and management have agreed on a "plan to prevent a recurrence of unpaid wages" to resolve the issue of unpaid allowances totaling about 83 billion won. The financial authorities also plan to proceed with full-fledged procedures to resolve the unpaid allowances issue.
According to a compilation of ChosunBiz reporting on the 25th, Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) executives recently presented several measures, saying, "We will work to prevent a recurrence of wage arrears as before," and the union agreed. The recurrence prevention plan is said to include efficiency measures such as the management gradually reducing employees' excessive overtime and creating staffing conditions that allow them to take compensatory leave accrued from overtime in a timely manner.
This follows the Financial Services Commission requesting that Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) labor and management establish measures to prevent a recurrence of wage arrears. To pay the unpaid allowances, the Financial Services Commission must convene a management budget review committee and approve a budget allocation that allows Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) to spend more than the personnel expense cap. Because all public institutions, including state-run banks such as Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK), are subject to the total personnel cost system, they cannot freely spend on personnel expenses no matter how much profit they make.
Because it is an unusual situation requiring an exception to the total personnel cost system amounting to 80 billion won, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) requested that Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) labor and management prepare recurrence prevention measures. With labor and management having produced a wage arrears recurrence prevention agreement, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) plans to convene a management budget review and proceed with follow-up steps.
An official at the Financial Services Commission (FSC) said, "Other public corporations observed the given personnel expense cap, but Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) alone exceeded it by tens of billions of won. Therefore, to allow spending above the personnel expense cap, at a minimum there had to be a recurrence prevention agreement (between Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) labor and management)," adding, "In effect, we secured a promise that they will work to ensure a large-scale wage arrears situation is never repeated." The official went on, "We are currently discussing how to resolve the unpaid allowances issue based on that agreement," and said, "The goal is to resolve it as quickly as possible."
To resolve the unpaid allowances issue, bank president Jang Min-young and union Chairperson Ryu Jang-hee also held a "lightning meeting." Without a prior appointment, Ryu's side first proposed the meeting, and Jang accepted, making it happen.
A senior industry official said, "At the meeting, Chairperson Ryu conveyed the message, 'Please resolve the promised unpaid allowances issue as soon as possible,' and President Jang replied in the sense of, 'We promised to resolve it, so we will carry it out one way or another,'" adding, "It served as an occasion for management to reconfirm to the union its determination to resolve the wage arrears situation."