GM Korea to Launch Pilot Program to Eliminate Overnight Shift
The new shift arrangement follows a similar, more permanent move this week by Hyundai-Kia. The shorter work schedules could take effect early next year at GM, if the union agrees to productivity improvements.
GM Korea is following Hyundai in a move to abolish long overnight shifts at its manufacturing plants, for decades a source of complaint by workers who contend the long hours and absence from family are eroding their quality of life.
A GM Korea spokesman tells WardsAuto the company will implement a test program on March 11 that eliminates the 10-hour long graveyard shifts beginning shortly after midnight and end in the early morning hours.
Rather than the current two 10-hour shifts, GM Korea will implement shifts of eight and nine hours. The day crew would come onboard at 7 a.m. and leave just before 4 p.m., including a lunch break. Workers on the afternoon shift would begin just before 4 p.m. and head home at 1:30 a.m.
The test program will continue through March 22.
The GM Korea action follows a similar but fully implemented revamped work schedule that began this week at both Hyundai and Kia, and results from negotiations with the union in 2012.
“It was agreed that the company should launch a pilot program during the first quarter this year and implement the new working system from the first day of 2014,” the GM Korea spokesman notes.
He says issues remain between the auto maker and union that need to be addressed.
“After the pilot program, the company and labor union will continue discussing in detail how to enhance efficiency to make up for the production shortfall from the new working system.”
The move affects those in the 10,000-member workforce who are employed at vehicle assembly plants in Bupyeong, Gunsan and Changwon.
Under the leadership of new GM Korea CEO Sergio Rocha, management has been working closely with the union to increase efficiency and improve profitability. This includes voluntary-retirement programs, which significantly reduced middle and upper management and worker headcounts.
The first voluntary retirement program for middle and senior managers was launched less than three months after Rocha was appointed president and CEO in February 2012.
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