Labor-management conflict at LEENO Industrial, a Busan semiconductor testing parts company, is showing signs of becoming prolonged. With the union continuing an indefinite general strike, the gap between the two sides over proposals on the wage system and management rights is not narrowing.
According to the industry on the 3rd, the union recently delivered a revised bargaining proposal to the company. The revision includes a plan to pay the labor-management settlement money, which is paid to union members, in a lump sum to the union, and requires prior agreement with the union on major management matters such as partitioning and mergers, factory transfer, introduction of automation equipment and new technologies, and promotion of outsourcing and subcontracting.
On personnel matters, the union also demanded that appointments involving union executives, officers, and delegates be made after consultation with the union, and that transfers, reassignments, and placement changes proceed after prior consultation with the individuals concerned.
Overhauling the wage system is also a core sticking point. The union says the current performance-based compensation system should be shifted to a more stable wage structure. It is demanding improvements to the compensation scheme, including the method of paying performance bonuses in the first and second halves and year-end management performance bonuses.
The company, on the other hand, maintains it is difficult to accept some demands, saying they excessively restrict management and personnel rights and could trigger legal issues. In particular, it says it cannot accept the demand to pay a separate settlement only to union members and to require prior agreement with the union on key management decisions.
On performance bonuses, the company believes the union's demands could significantly raise the burden of ordinary wages, while the union counters that the intent is not to expand performance bonuses but to steadily improve a wage system whose volatility swings with market conditions.
The union has been on an indefinite general strike since the 23rd of last month. About half of the employees scheduled to work are said to have joined the strike, and with key production personnel leaving the sites, production of semiconductor test pins and sockets has reportedly been disrupted. With both labor and management sticking to their positions, whether talks will resume and whether the strike will drag on are seen as variables ahead.