Enlarge Image
Major commercial banks and savings banks will stop shortening their business hours in about a year and a half from the 30th and open normally at 9:00 am and close at 4:00 pm.
According to the financial sector today (27th), major commercial banks will return their business hours, which are currently 9:30 am to 3:30 pm, to 9:00 am to 4:00 pm at the same time as the indoor mask duty is lifted next Monday (30th). The guidelines will be announced within the company today, and related preparations will be sent down to the branches as well.
It is known that the Korea Development Bank has already delivered the same guidelines to the branch yesterday afternoon.
Savings banks such as SBI are also scheduled to resume normal operations from the 30th.
Major savings banks such as OK, Welcome, and Pepper are already operating as before Corona 19, but about 40 savings banks are still in a shortened state of operation.
It is from July 12, 2021 that the bank's business hours, originally '9 am to 4 pm', were reduced to '9:30 am to 3:30 pm'.
As the government strengthened social distancing in the metropolitan area to four levels, the finance labor and management agreed to temporarily shorten the business hours of banks in the metropolitan area, such as Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon, by one hour from the 12th to the 23rd.
In October of the same year, the Central Labor-Management Committee, in which financial labor and management (Financial Union-Financial Industry Users Council) participated, announced that 'Business hours are 1 hour until the government's COVID-19-related quarantine guidelines restrict private gatherings, multi-use facilities, and the obligation to wear indoor masks is lifted. We decided to keep the shortening', and the shortening of business hours was expanded nationwide.
At industry-level negotiations in 2022, labor and management agreed to form a separate task force to discuss this issue again, but as there was no progress even after the schedule for lifting the indoor mask duty was announced, the financial employer decided to normalize business hours once without the union's complete consent. policy has been set.
The management has recently obtained an interpretation that business hours can be normalized even without labor-management agreement after the indoor mask duty has been lifted through external legal advice.
The financial union, which still insists on 'opening at 9:30', is also considering filing an application for provisional injunction if the bank unilaterally normalizes business hours.
(Photo = Yonhap News)