The Democratic Party of Korea said on the 29th that Coupang is still not carrying out the first and second social agreements in the parcel delivery sector and urged the company to promptly submit a concrete plan.
The Democratic Party's "Eul-protection People's Livelihood Action Committee" (Euljiro Committee) held the fifth meeting of the "social dialogue body for the parcel delivery sector" at the National Assembly that day and discussed with labor groups and others how to check the implementation of the first and second social agreements on measures to prevent overwork deaths among delivery workers and how to improve issues involving holiday and dawn delivery. Democratic Party lawmakers Kim Nam-geun, Lee Yong-woo, and Park Hong-bae attended the meeting.
After the meeting, lawmaker Kim Nam-geun said at a briefing that while other parcel delivery companies are largely carrying out the first and second social agreements, Coupang did not take part in the agreement at the time, raising the question of by when it will carry them out. Kim added that Coupang said it would test the deployment of substitute workers for parcel sorting at several business sites and submit an implementation plan, but no concrete plan has emerged yet, and the committee again directed the company to submit one.
Earlier, the first and second social agreements drawn up in 2021 included: ▲ deployment of dedicated sorting workers ▲ the primary parcel delivery companies bearing delivery workers' social insurance premiums ▲ bans on working more than 60 hours a week or 12 hours a day. Coupang did not join the talks then, saying it was not a parcel delivery business operator, but later won approval from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport as a parcel delivery business operator and became subject to implementing the agreements.
Pressure also continued on Coupang over holiday deliveries. Kim said that while other parcel delivery companies such as CJ Logistics have about eight days off a year, Coupang only says it is difficult, so there were views on how many days off a year it should have.
To prevent the talks from spinning their wheels due to Coupang's lukewarm attitude, the Democratic Party decided to push a plan to focus-check Coupang's nonimplementation of the first and second agreements at a separate table. Lawmaker Lee Yong-woo said that for more than a month the committee has been calling for clear implementation of the first and second agreements, but the company still has not brought a plan, adding that members agreed the talks would not stall only if they convene Coupang alone at a separate table to sort out issues such as unpaid social insurance contributions that have not been implemented.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party said it aims to focus discussions starting in January next year on contentious issues in the parcel delivery sector, including shifting to a five-day workweek and dawn delivery, and to reach a social agreement before the Lunar New Year holiday.
While aiming in the long term to shift to a five-day workweek, the party's position is to draw up a roadmap including deploying substitute workers. Kim said that in the process of moving to five-day-a-week delivery, members are narrowing views on options such as choosing holidays during the transition or not penalizing fulfillment of delivery-rate evaluations, adding that they agreed to focus discussions from January next year and, if possible, to hammer out a social agreement before Gujeong (Seol).
Lawmaker Lee Yong-woo also said they decided it is reasonable to move in the direction of introducing a five-day workweek and to make this a key point of contention for discussion, adding that separately they plan to take up the introduction of mandatory annual closure days as a point of contention and discuss it with speed. He added that maintaining add-on tasks such as small-item sorting or collecting fresh bags as is now is seen as risky, and that if add-on tasks are excluded, what constitutes appropriate daily and weekly working hours will also be a major point of contention.