▲ Gyeonggi Province Public Bus
The collective bargaining involving 47 bus companies in Gyeonggi Province has ultimately failed.
According to the Gyeonggi Area Automobile Labor Union (hereafter Gyeonggi Bus Union), the union held consecutive negotiations with the Gyeonggi Bus Transportation Business Association, representing the employers, for private and quasi-public routes. However, unable to reach an agreement, they declared the breakdown of talks yesterday (3rd).
Prior to this, the bus labor union engaged in seven rounds of negotiations for private routes and four rounds for quasi-public routes.
Bus workers, even at the same company, have different working conditions and treatment depending on their routes, thus negotiations for private and quasi-public routes are conducted separately.
As a result, the Gyeonggi Bus Union has resolved to file for a labor dispute mediation with the Gyeonggi Local Labor Commission on the 15th.
A strike vote involving around 18,000 union members is scheduled to be conducted on the 23rd.
The mediation period by the labor commission is 15 days, and if the strike vote passes and no agreement is reached by the 30th of this month, a bus strike may take place starting from the first bus on October 1st.
For the first time, KD Group and other intercity bus lines, which previously held individual negotiations, participated in this collective bargaining.
The Gyeonggi Bus Union includes over 10,000 buses from 47 companies.
This includes approximately 2,300 quasi-public, 7,100 private, and 800 intercity buses.
The union argues that the flexible working hours system implemented on private routes leads to long working hours of 17 hours a day, and demands a shift to a two-shift system with equal pay, similar to the quasi-public routes.
For the quasi-public routes, the union reportedly proposed a wage increase rate equivalent to the recent wage hike applied to Seoul buses under the Supreme Court’s ordinary wage ruling.
Furthermore, they demand a firm commitment from Gyeonggi Province to implement the labor-management-government agreement to expand the public management system to all routes by 2027.
On the other hand, the employers’ association insists on maintaining the flexible working hours system for private routes and freezing wages, showing a stark contrast with the union’s stance.
(Photo = Yonhap News)