Only half of Homeplus Co. employees' unpaid January wages will be paid on the 12th.
Homeplus Co. said in a management message on the 6th, "We deeply regret the situation in which wages were not paid due to delays in consent to the rehabilitation plan," adding, "Although the current cash situation is still difficult, to ease employees' inconvenience even a little, we will secure funds by deferring payment of essential operating funds and will pay 50% of the unpaid January wages on Feb. 12."
However, management added that it would be difficult to meet the payment dates for holiday bonuses and February wages.
Management continued, "We are doing our best to secure a debtor-in-possession (DIP) emergency operating loan, but coordination with stakeholders has not proceeded smoothly, causing delays," and "We cannot specify the timing of payment, but we will do our best to pay the deferred wages and bonuses as soon as the financial situation improves through the emergency operating loan."
The labor union pushed back. Choi Cheol-han, secretary-general of the Homeplus unit of the Mart Workers' Union, said, "Until now, management misled the shop floor as if the loan was not possible because the Mart Workers' Union did not consent, but this announcement makes it clear that the cause of the loan delay is 'failure to coordinate with stakeholders.' This proves on its own that the long-running 'blame the union' frame was blatant deception."
The union added, "The real reason the loan is not going through lies in the flaws of management's rehabilitation plan, which failed to convince even the creditors," and "We are angered by management's attitude of hiding behind a showy 50% wage payment ahead of the holiday and treating the nonpayment of bonuses and next-month wages as a given."
Earlier, Homeplus Co., citing a deterioration in its cash situation, paid employees' December wages last year in partitioning and postponed payment of last month's wages.