Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) demanded that the management-labor collection bargaining agreement should be amended to delete clauses related to giving priority to hiring the children of HHI labor union members and offering overseas training programs for labor union members.
The labor union of the ailing Korean shipbuilder refused to do so. The South Korean shipmaker said on April 29: “We proposed an amendment to the collection bargaining agreement to get rid of all the preposterous clauses that were added when the shipbuilding industry was booming. We just want to adjust unreasonable clauses at a time when Korean ship building industry has hit one of its lowest troughs.
The HHI labor union will hold collective bargaining sessions with the company on May 10.
The proposed amendment contains changes to 35 clauses, including the one related to giving hereditary employment to the children of HHI labor union members.
The company wants to remove two clauses in Article 38: i) The Company makes it a rule to give preferential hiring treatment to the children of a retiree if he or she requests it when there is a job opening. ii) When a labor union member dies from a work-related injury or disease, the Company shall preferentially hire his or her child.
HHI also proposed advancing the introduction of a wage peak system by excluding employees aged 56 and over from regular promotions and wage hikes. The labor union, however, balks at the management’s proposals.
