▲ The Seoul City Bus Labor Union holds a press briefing on Sept. 9.
Labor and management representatives for Seoul's city buses, who have been at odds over matters such as the calculation standards for ordinary wages, failed to narrow their differences during the first mediation meeting held by the Seoul Regional Labor Relations Commission on Sept. 9.
While the union stated its willingness to talk with management even before the second mediation meeting scheduled for Sept. 15, concerns are growing that a full-scale strike could materialize on Sept. 16 if both sides fail to reach an agreement.
Ryu Jae-ho, deputy secretary-general of the Seoul City Bus Labor Union, held a press briefing at the Bus Labor Union Hall in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, this afternoon, stating, "Management has yet to respond to our demands, including wage hikes." He added, "We have asked the labor commission to hold additional mediation sessions without being bound by form, whether tomorrow, the day after, or over the weekend."
Regarding the planned strike on Sept. 16, Ryu emphasized, "We are by no means trying to take citizens hostage ahead of Chuseok. We are merely exercising our fundamental constitutional rights."
Following the briefing, Bus Labor Union Chairperson Park Jeom-gon, Democratic Party Seoul City Chapter Chairman Kim Young-bae, Park Joo-min, head of the Democratic Party's Seoul City Chapter Special Committee on Monitoring Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon's Administration, Seoul Metropolitan Council member Yu Ju-dong, and Seoul Metropolitan Council member Lee Kwang-hee held a meeting.
They urged the Seoul Metropolitan Government to mediate the labor-management conflict and propose a solution before a strike hits.
The Seoul city bus labor and management have clashed over the interpretation and application of a 2024 Supreme Court en banc ruling recognizing regular bonuses paid without "fixedness" as ordinary wages, as well as subsequent ordinary wage lawsuit rulings involving workers at Dong-A Transportation, a Seoul bus company.
The Seoul City Bus Transport Association, an organization of bus companies, proposed reflecting regular bonuses into annual salaries in line with the Supreme Court's ruling intent.
Under this proposal, regular bonuses would be eliminated, and annual salaries would rise by approximately 10.3%.
In contrast, the union has protested this management proposal, demanding additional wage increases on top of incorporating regular bonuses into ordinary wage-based allowances.
The two sides also remain at a stalemate over the "standard hours" used to calculate how much monthly ordinary wages translate to per hour.
Recognizing fewer standard hours results in more wages to be paid, which is advantageous to the union.
Previously, in the final appeal of a lawsuit filed by Dong-A Transportation against management, the Supreme Court remanded the case to the Seoul High Court regarding other issues while upholding the lower court's (second instance) decision recognizing the standard hours as 176 hours per month.
Regarding this, the union argues that the standard hours have already been finalized at 176 hours by the ruling, whereas management counters that they are contesting to change the standard hours to 209 or 230 hours in the remand trial, meaning this part of the ruling has not been finalized.
Management proposed paying wages based on 209 hours for now and issuing additional payments if the lawsuit result is finalized at 176 hours, but the union has rejected this, calling it a "scheme to cut wages."
Meanwhile, the union notified each branch that it will suspend the provision of tuition subsidies and year-end welfare points to union members who do not participate in the strike.
The union argued, "Imposing certain sanctions within the scope stipulated by the bylaws on union members who participated in [dispute actions] without justifiable cause is a legitimate exercise of internal control by the union."
In response, the Seoul Metropolitan Government stated that it has requested a legal review from management, noting that "there is room for conflict with Article 38 of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act."
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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