Ministry of Culture Signs Wage and Collective Agreement with Permanent Staff Union...Basic Monthly Salary Raised by 65,000 Won

First Collective Agreement Reached Without Labor Dispute

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced that it signed a wage agreement and a collective agreement with the Ministry's union of permanent staff at 11 a.m. on the 16th.

The wage agreement includes a raise in this year's basic monthly salary by 65,000 won (or 40,000 won for some employees on the step salary system). At the end of the year, the parties will hold additional discussions, depending on the personnel budget situation.

Under the collective agreement, the retirement age for security staff at the National Museum of Korea, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, National Folk Museum of Korea, National Museum of Korean Contemporary History, and National Hangeul Museum will be extended to 62. A new long-term service reward leave policy will grant three days off for five years of service, five days for ten years, and seven days for twenty years. The eligible age for parental leave will be expanded from the current age of eight or the second year of elementary school to age 12 or the sixth year of elementary school.

The Ministry explained that this is the third collective agreement, following previous agreements in 2019 and 2022. It also added that this is the first time since the start of collective bargaining with the union of permanent staff in 2018 that an agreement has been reached solely through dialogue and mediation, without a period of labor disputes.

The Ministry and the union engaged in 30 rounds of negotiations from November 2024 to July this year but failed to reach an agreement, and as in previous years, there was a high likelihood of mediation breakdown and labor conflict. However, during the mediation process with the Central Labor Relations Commission in July, both labor and management recognized the need for substantial improvements to the treatment of permanent staff. With the intervention of the mediators, dialogue resumed and the parties reached an agreement.

Sunil Lee, Director of the Ministry's Operations Support Division, stated, "This agreement is the first concluded solely through dialogue and mediation between the Ministry and the union of permanent staff, and is expected to serve as a meaningful precedent going forward. We will continue to make every effort to deeply understand the circumstances of permanent staff who work quietly on the front lines of cultural institutions, and to improve their working environment."

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