Oh Se-hoon: “Bus drivers’ annual salaries to rise from 68 million won to 85 million won... Union demands excessive”

[Financial News] Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon criticized the Seoul City Bus Workers' Union, which has announced a strike for the 16th, saying, “Citizens’ mobility must not be held hostage again.” In a Facebook post on the 14th, Mayor Oh stressed, “It is by no means normal for citizens to be anxious about commuting twice in a single year,” adding, “No justification can take precedence over citizens’ daily lives.”
Mayor Oh said the union’s demands regarding ordinary wages, the key issue in the current wage negotiations, were excessive.
The union is currently demanding that the monthly standard hours for calculating ordinary wages be set at 176 hours, along with an additional 7.85% increase in hourly wages. He said, “If all of the union’s demands are accepted, the annual salary of a long-serving city bus driver would rise from approximately 68 million won last year to as much as 85 million won—an increase of nearly 20 million won at once,” adding, “Such a sharp wage increase in just one year would be difficult for any company to bear and would not meet the expectations of citizens, who would ultimately have to shoulder the burden.”
He continued, “The intent of the Supreme Court of Korea’s ruling must, of course, be respected,” but criticized the union, saying, “Using this ruling as leverage to demand a massive wage increase that would place a heavy burden on Seoul’s finances is excessive by any standard.”
He added, “There is ample room to negotiate at a reasonable level while reflecting the ruling on ordinary wages,” but said, “Nevertheless, announcing an all-out strike once again while demanding an additional wage increase on top of the increase resulting from the Supreme Court of Korea’s ruling is tantamount to using citizens’ right to mobility as a bargaining hostage.”
In particular, Mayor Oh once again emphasized the need to revise the law to designate city buses as an essential public service. Unlike railways, urban railways and air transport, city buses are excluded from the category of essential public services, allowing an all-out strike under the current system.
Mayor Oh urged, “The government and the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea must act immediately to revise the law and designate city buses as an essential public service before it is too late,” adding, “We must no longer leave in place a system in which citizens’ daily lives are completely shaken by the threat of a strike whenever city bus wage negotiations take place.”
Addressing the union, he urged, “Rather than putting an all-out strike first and driving citizens into anxiety, please engage in negotiations responsibly until the very end.”
Meanwhile, Seoul Metropolitan Government has prepared emergency transportation measures for a city bus strike, including additional subway services and free shuttle buses. Mayor Oh said, “We will make every effort until the last moment to help labor and management find a reasonable point of agreement,” adding, “At the same time, we will thoroughly prepare emergency transportation measures for any eventuality.”

[email protected] Seong Cho-rong Reporter