Kia Motors workers have accepted a revised pay for 2019 offer by company management, ending months of protracted wage negotiations and industrial action.

Kia had previously offered its workers a basic monthly wage increase of KRW40,000 (US$34) and annual bonuses worth 1.5 times monthly wages and an additional cash bonus of KRW3.2m. 

To improve the deal, the company proposed to donate KRW1bn to the union welfare fund, agreed to add an additional day of holiday in early May resulting in five straight days of holiday and set up a labour-management task force to handle overtime work. 

Kia workers voted 59% in favour of the revised offer despite having demanded earlier that the carmaker narrow the wage gap with sister company Hyundai Motor – which the company rejected.

Kia Motor said it aims to sell 2.96m vehicles globally in 2020 after volume declined by 1.5% to 2.77m in 2019.

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