Hanmaeum Council, the employee representative body at Homeplus Co., said on the 17th, "At Homeplus Co., the livelihoods of 100,000 people, including partner company employees and their families, are at stake," and "We earnestly ask the government, the National Assembly, large corporations' transaction clients, and related agencies to please help so that Homeplus Co. can come back to life and all employees can return to the modest routines of the past."
Hanmaeum Council said this in a statement released that day regarding the corporate rehabilitation process (court receivership). The council is a labor-management consultative body composed of labor Commissioners elected from each of Homeplus Co.'s business sites nationwide, including hypermarkets, Express stores, logistics centers, and bakeries.
The council said, "A large retail company like Homeplus Co. is tied to numerous partner companies, so once it falls, it is not easy to get back up," and "For now, we must set everything else aside and devise and execute a normalization plan as swiftly as possible."
They said, "During the rehabilitation process over the past nine months, employees have never given up for a moment and have done their utmost to revive the company, but contrary to our earnest hopes, even the open bidding ended up failing, and employees are spending each day in great anxiety."
The council said, "Large corporations' transaction clients that had transacted with us for decades are demanding deposits and advance payments rather than helping the rehabilitation, and in their rush to cut delivery volumes, stores are growing increasingly empty," and "Financial institutions are rejecting employees' personal loans, and even wages have reached the point where they must be paid in partitioning."
At the same time, it said, "Even in this desperate situation, all employees are prepared to willingly endure any hardship as long as there is confidence that Homeplus Co. can come back to life," but added, "Regrettably, concrete discussions on practical measures to save Homeplus Co. are not taking place."
Homeplus Co. has been undergoing a corporate rehabilitation process since Mar. The company has been pursuing normalization through a sale after filing for rehabilitation but has not found a suitable buyer. Two candidates took part in the preliminary bid last month, but none participated in the main bid, so it ultimately fell through. The court's deadline for submission of Homeplus Co.'s rehabilitation plan is on the 29th.