Hanwha Ocean, Direct Employees' Union Settle Wage and Collective Bargaining Talks After 5 Months

Wage and collective bargaining negotiations between Hanwha Ocean and the union representing its direct employees have been settled after more than five months.

The Hanwha Ocean branch of the Korean Metal Workers' Union, the union representing regular employees directly employed by Hanwha Ocean, held its second extraordinary general meeting on October 29 and voted on the tentative wage and collective bargaining agreement reached with management the previous day.

Of the 4,707 union members, 4,422 (93.95%) participated in the vote. The tentative agreement was approved, with 2,212 members (50.2%) voting in favor and 2,183 (49.37%) voting against. There were 285 abstentions and 27 invalid ballots.

Hanwha Ocean's Geoje Shipyard. [Photo provided by Hanwha Ocean]

The agreement includes a one-time payment of 8.5 million won, including a settlement bonus and a mutual-growth incentive; a 140,000-won increase in monthly base pay; annual welfare points worth 1 million won; increases in some congratulatory and condolence payments; higher support payments for children about to start school; and the hiring of new employees.

It also calls for the establishment and operation of a task force to improve the performance-based bonus system, with criteria for awarding financial and strategic performance bonuses to be set by the end of this year.

The agreement also provides for rehiring union members who reach retirement age as production contract workers for one year. It further calls for the creation of related review criteria to consider extending each person's employment by an additional year.

Since their first meeting on June 4, Hanwha Ocean and the union representing its direct employees have held 30 rounds of negotiations.

With the agreement approved, union branch chief Kim Yucheol, who has been staging a high-altitude sit-in protest at Hanwha Ocean's Geoje Shipyard since October 8, is expected to climb down from the crane.

The company and the union plan to coordinate schedules and hold a signing ceremony soon.

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