Seoul City Buses Reach Last-Minute Wage Deal, Averting Morning Commute Chaos

〈Anchor〉

Seoul city buses, which were on the brink of a strike, dramatically reached a tentative agreement between labor and management early this morning, September 16. All buses are operating normally as usual today.

For our top story, reporter Kwon Min-kyu has the details.

〈Reporter〉

The negotiations between Seoul city bus labor and management, which had remained at a standstill, dramatically reached an agreement at around 2:00 a.m. today, just two hours before the scheduled general strike.

The two sides engaged in a marathon negotiation session lasting nearly 12 hours starting from 2:00 p.m. yesterday. While their positions remained sharply divided past midnight, they successfully reached an agreement right before the strike.

[Kwon Byung-hee / Chairman of the Adjustment Committee, Seoul Regional Labor Relations Commission: I hereby announce that the mediation proposal presented by the Special Adjustment Committee has been accepted by both labor and management, and an agreement has been finalized.]

The wage increase rate agreed upon by labor and management is 3.2%, which is 0.3 percentage points higher than last year's increase rate of 2.9%.

Although opinions sharply clashed over issues such as the reflection of ordinary wages and this year's hourly wage increases, they found common ground at the 3.2% level by accepting the mediation proposal from the Seoul Regional Labor Relations Commission.

[Park Jeom-gon / Chairman of the Seoul City Bus Labor Union: This agreement was made possible thanks to the great support and encouragement from those around us. Although we are not entirely satisfied, the very fact that we reached this agreement for the 10 million citizens...]

However, the issue of the standard calculation hours for ordinary wages, which was a major point of contention between the two sides, was excluded from this agreement.

Previously, citing recent precedents such as the Supreme Court ruling in April of this year, the union argued that the standard calculation hours for ordinary wages should be applied at 176 hours per month. Meanwhile, management and the Seoul Metropolitan Government countered that 209 hours should be applied, taking into consideration the working hours mutually agreed upon by labor and management.

[Kim Jung-hwan / Chairman of the Seoul City Bus Transport Association: Ultimately, we were unable to resolve the ordinary wage issue. We made a lot of effort to somehow resolve it, but it will likely continue to be a significant burden for both management and labor.]

Labor and management agreed to re-establish the calculation standards in accordance with the relevant Supreme Court ruling scheduled for later this year.

With the agreement reached, the planned Seoul city bus strike, which was set to begin with the first buses at 4:00 a.m., was called off, and all routes are operating normally.

Additionally, the emergency transport measures prepared by the Seoul Metropolitan Government in anticipation of the bus strike have all been lifted.

(Photo: Yonhap News / Video by Choi Jun-sik / Video Editing by Choi Hye-ran)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.