Agreed to a raise! Painters at the shipyard declare strike over
Subcontract workers at Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries have been on strike since Sept. 15, demanding higher wages and better safety guarantees. As the strike continues, the completion rate of the steel pretreatment project at Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries shipbuilding site has dropped to about 50 percent of the usual level. As a result, the Korean industry is concerned that if the painting workers refuse to work for a long time, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries will become the second Daewoo Shipbuilding.
Prior to this, the labor union of Daewoo Shipbuilding subcontractors announced an indefinite general strike on June 2, with 1,000 subcontractors from 21 subcontractors engaged in painting, scaffold fabrication, installation, assembly, and equipment installation. The strike lasted for 51 days until July 22, when the subcontractor labor union reached an agreement with Daewoo Shipbuilding's internal partner council, and the management agreed to increase workers' wages and pay for vacation.
Fearing a prolonged strike, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries and its subcontractors actively negotiated with the labor union and settled the strike on the eighth day. Under the agreement between labor and management, subcontractors at the painting company will receive a pay raise of 10,000 won a day and receive paid annual leave. Until now, workers without a fixed contract were not allowed to use their annual leave because they were given annual leave allowances. In addition, the company will have to pay 10,000 won for every four hours when workers take the cable car to work at altitude.
In safety-related matters, the agreement stipulates that the company must provide subcontractors with lighting tools free of charge and pay 5,000 won a month if they buy them themselves. Check the working tools once a month; Starting from the third quarter of next year, the IRATA(International Industrial Rope Technology Association) qualification certificate holder system will be implemented.
Hwang Hyung-soo, chairman of the Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Branch of the Korean Metal Workers Union, said, Raising the wages of subcontractors and improving working conditions are necessary to maintain the stability of the shipbuilding industry. The union will work with shipbuilders to find a way to improve the treatment of subcontractors and the development of the shipbuilding industry.
The serious shortage of manpower, the low treatment of subcontractors, the arrears of wages, and the occurrence of industrial accidents are the prominent problems prevailing in Korean shipbuilding enterprises at present. This year on August 30, South Korea hire labor department chief Li Zhengzhi interviewed the hyundai heavy industries, samsung heavy industries, daewoo shipbuilding, head and said: "subcontracting enterprise staff and the shipyard directly employ employees (staff) is quite large, of the pay gap between subcontracting enterprise workers for industrial disasters (injury) and wages by default, is suffering from a double pain. Fundamental improvement of employment structure and working conditions in the shipbuilding industry is an important task and starting point for labor market reform.
