Workers approve revised agreement with 57.1% support after narrowly rejecting the initial package
SK hynix production workers approved a revised labor agreement Wednesday after the chipmaker increased the cash portion of its profit-sharing bonuses, ending weeks of negotiations without a strike.
The agreement received 57.08 percent support in a two-day vote by unions representing production workers at the company’s Icheon and Cheongju plants. Of 16,039 eligible members,15,297 voted, with 8,731 in favor and 6,566 opposed.
Under the revised plan, profit-sharing bonuses will be split evenly between cash and company shares, compared with 40 percent cash and 60 percent stock in the original proposal. Employees may convert the cash portion into shares in 10-percentage-point increments, giving them the option to receive anywhere from 50 percent to 100 percent of the bonus in stock.
The changes addressed concerns among workers who opposed having most of their bonuses paid in shares, which would expose the compensation to stock-market fluctuations. The overall size of the bonus pool was not substantially changed.
“We thank the labor unions and our employees for working through a difficult process,” SK hynix said in a statement, adding that management and workers would continue to address future challenges together.
The company and the unions plan to sign the final agreement before the Chuseok holiday beginning Sept. 24, formally concluding this year’s wage and collective bargaining process.
The initial agreement was rejected on Aug. 25 by just 25 votes, with 49.92 percent in favor and 50.08 percent opposed. It called for a 6.3 percent wage increase and for 40 percent of the profit-sharing bonus to be paid in cash and 60 percent in treasury shares.
The revised agreement increased the number of supporting votes by 1,221 and raised the approval rate by about 7 percentage points. Management and union representatives reached the new deal on Sept. 9 after about two weeks of intensive negotiations.
The union held roughly 60 employee briefings before the second vote to explain the changes and their effect on bonus payments. The company said those meetings played an important role in building support for the revised package.
The bonus dispute carried added weight because of an agreement reached last year to allocate 10 percent of annual operating profit to employee profit sharing for 10 years while removing the previous payment ceiling. The latest negotiations focused on how potentially large bonuses would be delivered rather than on the formula used to calculate them.
The agreement also formalizes partial wage deferrals when the company records a loss, a provision SK hynix said reflects a commitment by management and workers to share responsibility in downturns as well as the rewards of profitable years. Additional housing-loan support will also be extended to single-parent households.
herim@heraldcorp.com
