Kakao Union Demands 10 Million Won Bonus, Stages One-Day Walkout

The Kakao labor union is staging a one-day collective action today by taking full-day leave, following the rejection of their demand for performance bonuses equivalent to 13 percent of the company's operating profit.

The union is holding a "Logout Day," where members are taking full-day leave or time off and logging out of internal work systems. This marks their second industrial action, following a four-hour partial strike held on June 10.

As with the first action, this collective movement involves five entities, including Kakao, Kakao Pay, and Kakao Enterprise.

The Kakao headquarters union has approximately 2,500 members, and industry observers estimate that the total number of participants, including those from affiliates, could reach up to 3,000.

Labor and management at Kakao have been unable to narrow their differences for about two months since collective bargaining negotiations regarding the performance bonus system broke down in May.

The union is demanding performance bonuses worth 10 million won, which is roughly 13 to 14 percent of operating profit, but the company maintains that the demand is difficult to accept as it would place a burden on management.

During the first collective action, about 1,000 employees from the headquarters and approximately 1,500 from the five entities participated, but no service disruptions occurred.

It was noted that the impact on users was limited at the time because a significant portion of service operations is automated.

However, as the union has expanded the scale of participation and is proceeding with a full-day work stoppage, attention is focused on whether this will affect the operation of Kakao services, including KakaoTalk.

Kakao has activated a real-time response system to ensure the stable operation of major services like KakaoTalk and is working to minimize inconvenience to users.

The company plans to continue consultations with the union while maintaining the real-time response system to minimize the impact on customers.

Reported by Jung Da-eun | Video by Lee Ui-seon | Graphics by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.