It has turned out that directors’ pay at the world's largest shipbuilder, Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), had sharply risen last year while its shareholders received nothing in dividends because of its poor performance in 2014. Following last year’s losses of astronomical proportions, the HHI has been floundering about in the red for seven consecutive quarters.
The HHI last year did not pay dividends to its shareholders, according to FnGuide, a Korean provider of financial information services, on August 22.
It paid its shareholders 122.6 billion in dividends in 2013. Last year, no dividend payments were made to them on the grounds that the HHI suffered a net loss of 2.2 trillion won. With seven consecutive quarters of deficits, the HHI logged a net loss of 367.6 billion won in the first half of this year.
In a situation where the HHI shoud stick to stringent austerity measures, directors’ pay has increased from 4.2 billion won to 6.15 billion won.
Early this year, the HHI sacked 1,300 employees, including female employees and those at manager level or above. On top of that, employees of the HHI’s subcontractors haven’t recently received wages.
“Raising directors’ pay while running a deficit will only result in shareholders losing faith in the shipbuilder. It is very inappropriate when the government is eager to achieve social consensus on job sharing, calling for the so-called wage peak system,” said an industry insider.
Meanwhile, the labor union of the HHI said it would launch a three-hour strike on August 26 and hold a protest rally in Seoul on August 28.