Hyundai Motor workers to go on strike

Workers at South Korea’s largest automaker Hyundai Motor Co. will launch a limited strike Friday to press their demands for wage hikes, a union spokesman said.

The Hyundai Motor union plans to down tools for two hours in the morning and two hours again in the evening on Friday, union spokesman Hwang Ki-Tae told AFP.

The union has held 17 rounds of talks with management over the past two months, but has been unable to reach a compromise, he said.

“Negotiations stalled on whether to count regular bonuses towards ordinary wages,” he said.

This would increase workers’ incomes by an average 10 percent by increasing overtime pay, he added.

The union said its workers would also refuse to work overtime this weekend.

The union voted for the strike on August 14, with 70 percent of 47,262 union members voting in favor of industrial action.

The Supreme Court ruled in December last year that bonuses paid regularly should be considered as part of ordinary wages.

The ordinary wages are used as the basis for setting allowances such as overtime pay, holiday shift pay and paid annual leave, as well as pension, according to the law.

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