Kakao Stages First Partial Strike Since Founding Amid Escalating Labor-Management Conflict

The Kakao labor union has launched a partial strike, marking the first such action since the company's founding.

The Kakao branch of the Korean Chemical, Textile & Food Workers' Union is conducting a partial strike from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. today.

Considering that the period from noon to 1:00 p.m. today is a scheduled break, the actual duration of the strike is four hours.

Union members plan to march around Pangyo Agit, the company's office building in Seongnam, today.

A representative for the Kakao union stated, "We are currently assessing the number of participants in the strike."

The five corporate entities participating in this strike include Kakao's headquarters, Kakao Pay, Kakao Enterprise, DK Techin, and XL Games.

These entities secured the right to take industrial action after negotiations for wage and collective agreements broke down and mediation by the Gyeonggi Regional Labor Relations Commission was suspended. They subsequently voted in favor of the strike.

The primary cause of the labor-management conflict is the performance-based bonus structure.

Management and the union at Kakao headquarters have been at odds over a proposal to pay 13–14% of last year's operating profit as performance bonuses and whether to include 5 million won worth of Restricted Stock Units (RSU) in the bonus calculation.

The union is demanding performance bonuses worth approximately 10 million won and the exclusion of RSUs from the bonus calculation, while the company maintains that these demands place a significant burden on management.

However, the strike is not expected to have a major impact on the operation of key services such as KakaoTalk and Kakao Pay.

A Kakao official explained, "As most service operation tasks are automated, we anticipate that the impact of this collective action on actual service operations will be limited."

The official added, "We plan to establish a real-time response system, including the formation of a minimum response team, to minimize any potential impact on services during the period of collective action in preparation for emergencies."

The Ministry of Science and ICT also discussed emergency response systems with Kakao today in preparation for the strike.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.