Kakao's labor union will begin collective action on the 20th in protest of a breakdown in wage talks. With labor-management conflict surfacing simultaneously at key companies in the Kakao community, tensions are rising across the Pangyo information technology (IT) industry.
The Korea Federation of Chemical, Textile, Food, and Food Industry Workers' Unions Kakao Chapter said on the 11th that wage agreement talks for this year at five companies—Kakao, Kakao Pay, Kakao Enterprise, DKTechin, and XLGAMES—had collapsed, and that it filed for mediation with the Gyeonggi Regional Labor Relations Commission. The union will hold a rally on the 20th at Pangyo Station Plaza in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, and begin actions demanding Kakao's overhaul and improvements to working conditions.
The union pushed back, saying management is narrowing the focus of the dispute solely to the demand for bonuses. It said the 10% of operating profit bonus plan cited by the company was only one of several options reviewed during intensive talks. The union argued that although the company has delivered strong results in recent years, compensation has been distributed around executives, with a limited share going to employees.
Beyond compensation, the union cited long working hours, an inadequate response to alleged workplace harassment, and requests for members to consent to forensics as sources of conflict. It said the breakdown in talks stemmed not from a single wage issue but from repeated unilateral decision-making and a loss of trust.
The mediation process is also tied to the possibility of future industrial action. The mediation date is the 18th. If no agreement is reached in the labor commission's mediation, the union can secure the legal right to strike after a vote among its members.
Kakao posted record results last year with 8.0991 trillion won in revenue and 732 billion won in operating profit, and recorded 211.4 billion won in operating profit in the first quarter of this year. In the industry, some see the current conflict—where five companies are moving together—as likely to expand into a broader debate over compensation systems across the Kakao community.