|
The Health-Medical Union complained Tuesday, that despite seven hospitals, including Gangnam Catholic Hospital and Kyunghee Medical Center, staging an all-out or partial strike since May 23, the dominance of the World Cup fever has overshadowed the walkout.
While June is the traditional strike season, due to the annual wage negotiation, coincided with the international soccer festival, only 20 labor strikes were staged this year, well below the last year's 139, which included the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions joint walkout, and is the lowest in five years.
Wage negotiations are also settled without making much fuss; the Ministry of Labor (MOL) announced that 34.8% of businesses with more than 100 employees nationwide completed company-union negotiations as of June 19, up 8.2% from the end of May. Only 31.9% of businesses closed the negotiation in the same period last year. Wages were increased by 6.8% on average, some 1 % higher than last year's 5.8%.
Meanwhile, the five-day workweek system will start from July 1 in the banking sector, but the tripartite committee will not make a final deal on shortening labor hours during the World Cup period. A source from the MOL forecasts that the five-day workweek negotiations are expected to resume after the World Cup, and postponed wage negotiations would start as well.
(Kwon Sang-eun, sekwon@chosun.com )
|
