Financial Labor and Management Reach Tentative Agreement After Five Months... Bank Opening Time to Move from 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.

[Financial News] The National Financial Industry Labor Union (Financial Industry Union) and the Financial Industry Employers Association have reached a tentative industry-wide collective bargaining agreement. Under the tentative agreement, total wages will rise by 3.0%, while bank operating hours will be shortened by 30 minutes. As a result, the second general strike scheduled for the 30th will not go ahead. 
According to sources in the financial sector on the 28th, the Financial Industry Union and the employers' side announced after concluding chief representative-level negotiations that industry-wide central bargaining had been provisionally concluded that day. This came about five months after the first round of negotiations began in April. 
The two sides agreed to shorten bank branch operating hours by 30 minutes starting next April. The opening time will be pushed back from the current 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Closing time will remain unchanged at 4 p.m. 
The tentative agreement includes a 3.0% increase in total wages; the introduction of a 'work-life balance flexible start-time system' allowing employees to delay their start time by up to one hour per week, with a maximum of 30 minutes per day; the introduction of a Friday last-call, or customer closing, system and compensatory leave; improvements to the mystery shopping system; an extension of parental leave eligibility to children through the sixth grade of elementary school; and an extension of the working-hours adjustment system for employees with children in the lower grades of elementary school.
Yoon Seok-gu, chairman of the Financial Industry Union, said in a notice to branch representatives that day, "In addition to a 3.0% wage increase, we agreed to shorten bank operating hours by 30 minutes," adding, "This is the first time since the founding of the Republic of Korea."
Labor and management also agreed on measures to improve working conditions. Mystery shopping will be excluded from management evaluations, and sanctions against employees and executives on that basis will be prohibited. The agreement also includes expanded spousal childbirth leave and an explicit provision exempting employees from civil and criminal liability for lawful industrial action.
The Financial Industry Union plans to hold an emergency meeting of branch representatives on the 29th to share details of the tentative agreement.
In addition, the second general strike scheduled for the 30th was canceled. Following the first round of negotiations in April, the Financial Industry Union held dozens of rounds of representative-level and working-level talks and went through mediation procedures with the National Labor Relations Commission. It also held a rally last month on the 28th to pledge an all-out struggle for a general strike, staged a general strike on the 4th of this month, and conducted a 21-day overnight sit-in. 
Meanwhile, the tentative agreement reportedly does not include the relocation of state-owned banks to regional areas.

[email protected] Lee Hyun-jung, Ye Byung-jung Reporter