Hyundai Motor Union Demands '30% of Net Profit as Performance Bonus'... Also Requests 'Retirement Extension and 4.5-Day Workweek'

[Financial News] The Hyundai Motor union plans to present demands to the company during this year's wage and collective bargaining negotiations, focusing on a 900% bonus and retirement extension. Notably, the union's demands include the payment of 30% of net profit as a performance bonus, as in previous years. Last year, Hyundai Motor's net profit was 13 trillion 229.9 billion won, and they are demanding 3 trillion 969 billion won, which is 30%, as a performance bonus. As the Donald Trump U.S. administration has started a high tariff policy on imported cars, increasing difficulties for Hyundai Motor, which has a high export ratio to the U.S., the union's demand for a performance bonus amounting to 4 trillion won is expected to escalate labor-management conflicts.
The Hyundai Motor union held a temporary delegates' meeting on the 28th and 29th at the Hyundai Motor Cultural Center in Buk-gu, Ulsan, and confirmed the demands for the wage and collective bargaining agreement. The union's demands include a monthly basic salary increase of 141,300 won (excluding step increases, following the Metal Union guidelines) and the payment of 30% of the previous year's net profit as a performance bonus.
Additionally, they demand the inclusion of various allowances in the ordinary wage, increase or establishment of allowances by job group and duty, recruitment of new personnel, and the establishment of a support center for retirees. The union plans to demand the extension of the retirement age from the current 60 years to the end of the year before receiving the national pension (up to 64 years).
They also prepared a plan to establish a 40-year service reward standard, which was previously up to 35 years, considering the extension of the retirement age.
The union is also pursuing a plan to grant union membership to skilled re-employed workers in connection with the retirement extension. Skilled re-employed workers are those who are re-employed as contract workers after retirement, and Hyundai Motor guarantees a total of 2 years with a 1-year+1-year contract, but the salary is paid at the level of a new employee.
Within the union, there is an analysis that granting union membership rights such as voting rights on tentative collective bargaining agreements, strike voting rights, and the right to elect the union branch manager to these workers while introducing a wage peak system effectively extends the retirement age to 62 years. This is seen as a strategy to prepare for the difficulty of extending the retirement age.
The demands for the revision of the collective agreement include the introduction of a 4.5-day workweek by reducing Friday working hours by 4 hours without a wage cut, and increasing the bonus, which is currently 750% of the ordinary wage, to 900%.
The union plans to send the confirmed demands to the company soon. Labor and management are expected to start full-scale negotiations as early as June.
Previously, Hyundai Motor labor and management have reached agreements without strikes for six consecutive years since 2019. However, with the union executive election scheduled for the end of the year and the rapidly changing market situation due to the Donald Trump U.S. administration's high tariff policy and the electric vehicle chasm (temporary demand stagnation), it is expected that labor-management conflicts over this year's wage and collective bargaining agreement will intensify.
cjk@fnnews.com Choi Jong-geun Reporter