<Anchor> The
Seoul subway labor and management, who have been negotiating since yesterday (13th) on the plan for restructuring such as manpower reduction, reached an agreement a little before.
As a result, the union immediately withdrew the strike that had been announced for today, eliminating the inconvenience of going to work.
Reporter Baek Woon on the sidewalk.
<Reporter> The
Seoul Transportation Corporation labor-management negotiations, which had been repeated for close to nine hours, have been dramatically concluded.
A key issue was restructuring, i.e. whether to reduce the workforce.
The Seoul subway suffered a loss of hundreds of billions of won every year, but last year it lost 1 trillion won in the aftermath of Corona 19.
Free rides for the elderly were cited as the main cause of the deficit, and the labor and management agreed that all deficits related to this should be covered by the state budget.
However, as a self-help measure, the management argued that restructuring was necessary to reduce 1,500 employees, 10% of the workforce, and the union argued that the failure of the policy should not be passed on to the workers, and negotiations seemed to run parallel.
However, as the management accepted the union's demands, the mood suddenly changed.
Labor and management reached an agreement to ensure that there is no forced restructuring due to the financial crisis, and formed a labor-management joint consultative body to proceed with management normalization measures to strengthen safety and improve financial conditions.
They also agreed to propose to the government and Seoul to compensate for the loss of public service costs.
The union plans to withdraw the Seoul subway strike announced today and put the agreement to a member vote soon.