Naver to Give All Employees 10 Million KRW Worth of Company Shares Over 3 Years... Introducing 'Stock Grant'

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Naver, which has been embroiled in controversy over performance bonuses, has decided to grant company shares worth approximately 10 million KRW annually to all employees for three years.

On the morning of the 19th, Naver held an extraordinary board meeting and approved the introduction of a 'stock grant' program that provides company shares held by the company to employees free of charge.

Accordingly, all Naver employees except executives will receive company shares worth about 10 million KRW annually for three years starting this year. The stock grant is designed without a mandatory holding period, allowing immediate sale and conversion to cash. It will be granted twice a year (early July and early January of the following year) in installments based on the length of service during the year, with the first payment scheduled for early July this year.

A Naver official explained, "The new compensation program was conceived as a way to link individual growth with company growth based on the company's compensation philosophy that rewards should be sustainable rather than one-time," adding, "The stock grant is the result of Naver's thoughtful consideration."

With this, Naver now has three stock compensation programs: stock options, stock grants, and stock purchase rewards. Since 2019, Naver has provided stock options worth 10 million KRW annually to all employees for three years through this year. Additionally, it operates a stock purchase reward program that supports employees who directly purchase shares by providing 10% of the purchase amount (up to 2 million KRW annually) in cash.

This compensation policy is interpreted as an effort to resolve labor-management conflicts surrounding performance bonuses. Earlier this year, Naver froze performance bonuses at the previous year's level, causing internal disputes. The Naver labor union demanded disclosure of the performance bonus calculation method, arguing that despite the company achieving record-high results, the bonuses paid fell short of expectations.