12,000 Homeplus Employees Face Job Loss, Left Devastated

[Anchor]

Approximately 12,000 Homeplus employees are now facing the loss of their jobs. Concerns are growing that the damage could snowball, affecting small business owners operating within Homeplus stores and the company's suppliers.

Reporter Hong Yeongjae has the story.

[Reporter]

The news that the court has terminated the rehabilitation proceedings has left Homeplus employees, who had hoped their workplaces could be saved, feeling devastated.

[Homeplus Worker: The moment I saw the word termination, I thought, what is this? I couldn't even tell if termination meant liquidation, and my heart just sank. I really thought the rehabilitation proceedings would be extended.]

With the livelihoods of 12,000 Homeplus employees and about 1,000 indirectly employed workers, such as parking lot staff, pushed to the brink, the Homeplus labor union has ended its 51-day hunger strike in a state of despair and helplessness.

The atmosphere is also unsettled among the 8,000 small business shops operating inside Homeplus stores.

Some tenants closed their stores early yesterday (July 3).

[Homeplus Tenant: We received a text from the head office telling us not to operate until Sunday. (Why?) Because if the payments go through Homeplus, the head office won't be able to receive the money. They said they would switch us to their own POS (Point of Sale) terminals.]

[Homeplus Tenant: Most of these businesses invested hundreds of millions of won in facility costs to move in here. Now, we are in a situation where there is no guarantee for compensation regarding these investments.]

The situation is equally dire for companies that supply goods to Homeplus.

For the 150 suppliers involved, the average amount of unpaid invoices stands at 770 million won.

At a clothing supplier that has not received a single won in payments this year, inventory is piling up in the warehouse.

[Homeplus Clothing Supplier: The unpaid supply payments exceed 600 million won. If you include the products currently in the warehouse, the total is around 1.2 to 1.5 billion won.]

The losses for investors in short-term electronic bonds are also estimated to reach the 400 billion won range.

To minimize the fallout, the government has decided to provide 440 billion won in emergency liquidity support to small and medium-sized partner companies and pay up to 21 million won to those affected by unpaid wages.

Reported by Hong Yeongjae | Video by Bae Moon-san | Video Editing by Ahn Yeo-jin
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.