Kakao Union to Hold 'Logout Day' on the 29th as Negotiations Fail to Reach Agreement

Union Members to Take Full-Day Leave for "Logout Day"

The Kakao labor union was unable to reach an agreement with management regarding the performance-based compensation system during negotiations, so on June 29, union members will go ahead with the planned "Logout Day," which involves taking a full day of annual leave or a day off.

According to the union on June 28, the Kakao labor union, following a half-day strike on the 10th, also plans to hold "Logout Day" on the 29th.

The Kakao labor union, which has entered a partial strike, is marching from Kakao Pangyo Ajit in Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do to the U-Space Plaza on the 10th. Photo by Yonhap News

Logout Day is a form of collective action where union members do not perform any work by using a full day of annual leave or a full day off, and also log out from the company's internal work systems for the entire day.

The action will involve five companies, just as in the first strike: Kakao, Kakao Pay, Kakao Enterprise, DK Techin, and XL Games.

There are approximately 2,500 union members at Kakao headquarters, and the industry estimates that including union members from affiliates, up to 3,000 could participate in this collective action. However, the actual number of participants will be confirmed on the day of the strike.

The union has stated that, as before, there are no plans for an offline rally or a separate statement, and that future responses will be decided depending on the progress of negotiations.

Since the breakdown of collective bargaining over the performance-based compensation system in May, the Kakao labor and management have been unable to narrow their differences for two months.

The union is demanding a performance bonus of about 10 million won, which is roughly 13 to 14 percent of operating profit, while management maintains that this level of compensation would be a burden on the company's operations and is therefore difficult to accept.

The IT industry is closely watching the impact that this Logout Day may have on service operations.

During the first strike, approximately 1,000 people from headquarters and about 1,500 from the five companies participated, but no service disruptions occurred. Most of the service operations are automated, so the impact on services at that time was assessed to be limited.

However, since the union has announced a larger scale of participation this time, and since members will be fully disconnected from both their work duties and internal systems for the day, there are concerns that the company's emergency response capability may be affected if a crisis occurs.

In response, management has stated that while continuing to communicate with the union, it will maintain a real-time response system to ensure stable service operations and to minimize the impact on customers.

A Kakao representative said, "The company is operating a real-time response system to ensure stable services and minimize the impact on customers," adding, "We will continue to communicate and negotiate with the union for an early resolution."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.