Delivery Workers' Union to Fully Refuse 'Unpaid Labor' Sorting Tasks Starting from the 21st (Comprehensive Report 2)

95% Approval in Vote to Halt Parcel Sorting Work
Total Strike Ahead of Chuseok... Is a Logistics Crisis Coming?

On the 17th, a press conference titled "Full Refusal of Parcel Workers' Sorting Work and Announcement of the Parcel Workers' Overwork Death Countermeasures Committee's Position" was held at the National Democratic Labor Union Federation conference room in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporters Yu Je-hoon and Jung Dong-hoon] Some delivery workers have decided to completely refuse sorting work starting from the 21st of this month. With delivery demand increasing ten days before Chuseok, the risk of a potential 'logistics crisis' has grown.

The "Delivery Workers' Overwork Death Countermeasure Committee," composed of labor and civic groups, held a press conference on the 17th at the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) in Jung-gu, Seoul, announcing, "Over 4,000 delivery workers nationwide will completely refuse the unpaid sorting work starting from the 21st." The committee conducted a general vote among delivery workers from the 14th to the 16th to decide on the full refusal of sorting work. A total of 4,358 participants, including members of the KCTU Delivery Solidarity Union, took part in the vote, with 4,160 (95.5%) supporting the refusal.

Delivery workers perform "sorting work," where they select the parcels destined for their delivery areas from containers in logistics warehouses before delivering the items to their final destinations. However, since delivery workers receive commissions based on the number of deliveries, they claim they are not compensated for the sorting work.

Since the beginning of this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, delivery volumes have surged, and the time spent on sorting work has increased, leading to consecutive cases of overwork-related deaths among delivery workers. The committee stated, "Workers spend half of their 13 to 16-hour workdays on sorting work," adding, "However, they do not receive a single penny of wages for this task."

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport recommended on the 10th that the delivery industry increase personnel for sorting work. President Moon Jae-in also urged special attention to the overwork issues of delivery workers on the 14th. Park Seok-woon, co-representative of the committee, criticized, "Even though the president has ordered measures, delivery companies have not presented any solutions."

Delivery workers plan to continue collective action until delivery companies propose measures to prevent overwork deaths. The approximately 4,000 delivery workers participating in the sorting work refusal represent about 10% of all delivery workers. If their refusal materializes, the delivery crisis may be limited to certain regions.

Delivery companies are closely monitoring the situation. Due to the upcoming Chuseok holiday next week and the impact of COVID-19, the volume of goods is expected to increase sharply. A representative from a mid-sized delivery company said, "Since some personnel are refusing work, some disruptions are expected."

However, since the 4,000 participants are dispersed across various companies and delivery companies have entered a special countermeasure period for the Chuseok holiday, some predict the actual impact may not be significant. Recently, some delivery companies, including CJ Logistics, have been improving operational efficiency by installing automated systems at various hubs and sub-terminals.

An industry insider said, "Although about 4,000 workers are participating, they are spread across 18 delivery companies, and each company has been continuously increasing personnel, so the likelihood of a major crisis seems low," adding, "We will do our best to ensure there are no disruptions during the holiday period."