Hyundai, Kia Workers Continue to Refuse Weekend Shifts

Worker unions at both Hyundai and Kia in Korea are refusing to work Saturdays and Sundays for the third weekend in a row, seriously cutting into production schedules and thwarting management plans to improve productivity and profitability.

Impacted are Hyundai’s four plants in Ulsan and its facility in Asan, as well as Kia’s operations in Hwaseoung and Sohari.

Workers at Kia’s plant in Gwangju refused to work the weekend of March 9-10, but resumed weekend shifts last Saturday and Sunday and will work this weekend as well.

While Korean news media say the work refusals are based on union pay demands for weekend work, an analyst familiar with the situation tells WardsAuto the protest also involves local plant issues and is not based solely on pay.

The worker unions at all of the Hyundai and Kia plants already have signed off on a new weekday work schedule. It eliminates the former graveyard shift that had been in effect for as long as 45 years at older plants.

Instead of working two 10-hour back-to-back shifts, Hyundai and Kia workers now work either an 8-hour day or 9-hour afternoon shift.

The new weekday shift system went into effect March 4, and most workers are happy with it, the analyst says. However, each plant previously had its own work schedule for weekends, which differed somewhat from plant to plant.

Hyundai and Kia management are trying to make the 8-hour/9-hour shifts uniform for all operations, but the local union leadership at each plant is pressing for its own weekend shift arrangement.

The analyst notes Korean labor law requires employers to pay premium wages for work beyond eight hours on weekdays and for all shifts on weekends.

Management at Hyundai and Kia are abiding by the weekend premium overtime rule, the analyst says. However, if all plants do not work the same number of hours, finding a formula that maintains both worker pay levels and plant productivity becomes complex, he notes.

While workers are hourly rated, they are paid an annual salary that is negotiated by the unions each year.

Management at Hyundai and Kia continue to negotiate with their unions, as production schedules have been disrupted.

GM Korea agreed to drop its overnight graveyard shift and implement an 8-hour day and 9-hour afternoon shift, virtually in the same pattern as Hyundai and Kia, but it won’t go into effect until 2014. A trial program with the new operating hours ended yesterday.

A GM Korea spokesman tells WardsAuto the workers were very happy with the test run, but negotiations over a new pay schedule continue.

Analysts believe that whatever pay plan is developed at Hyundai and Kia will set the pattern for GM Korea.