Hyundai Motor and its union are said to be close to settling their bonus dispute, raising hopes of an early end to the three-day old partial strike.
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Management has tentatively agreed to grant some unpaid portion of year-end compensation should they return to work and recover production losses caused by union action since late December, company officials told the Korea Herald on condition of anonymity.
Officials from both sides have continued talks to settle details of the payment and other issues including lawsuits filed by both parties.
But as the two sides failed to agree on the time of payment, the 44,000-member union went ahead with its six-hour partial strike that began at 10am Korea time on Wednesday, the paper noted. The union said that it would decide the future course of action after the agreement was finalised.
Backgrounding the dispute, the Korea Herald said Hyundai promised to pay 150% of monthly wages as a year-end bonus on condition its production target was met. But the company failed to achieve the goal and paid only a 100% bonus, prompting the union to go on a partial strike on Monday. The company last year produced 1.62m vehicles, about 8% less than its initial target of 1.77m.
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By GlobalDataAccording to the Korea Herald, early yesterday, company president Yoon Yeo-chul met with union leader Park Yu-ki at the carmaker’s main plant in the southeastern city of Ulsan and agreed to hand out the remaining 50% to workers if they terminated their walkout and retrieved the company’s production losses since workers stopped working overtime on 28 December.
