Union Announces Offline Collective Actions Including Strike Next Week
Service Disruptions and Security Issues Expected During Strike
[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Choi] As labor and management at Naver remain at an impasse over improving the treatment of affiliates, the union's collective action is intensifying. The union has expressed a willingness to go as far as striking, raising concerns that if realized, it could affect major Naver services and even security issues.
According to the IT industry on the 18th, Naver's union "Joint Statement" plans to engage in offline collective actions such as one-person protests and rallies next week. This follows the official declaration of a dispute on the 26th for improving the treatment of five affiliates: Green Web Service, NIT Service (NIT), N Tech Service (NTS), Incomes, and Companions, marking the start of full-scale collective action.
A signature campaign targeting Naver headquarters employees is also underway. The union plans to deliver the signatures to management once it secures support for the dispute from about 1,000 employees, roughly 10% of all staff including non-union members. Since launching the campaign on the 16th, about 700 signatures have been collected so far.
The reason the union has escalated the level of collective action is due to the failure to narrow differences with management. The union is demanding a 10% salary increase for new employees at affiliates, which is only about half the level of Naver headquarters, from Naver headquarters. The union argues that since the Naver board of directors makes major management decisions such as appointing affiliate representatives, and all five affiliates work exclusively on Naver-related tasks, the headquarters should take responsibility.
On the other hand, Naver maintains that it cannot intervene in issues concerning independent affiliate corporations. Each affiliate must decide wage matters independently. Naver has stated that it is difficult to intervene in the core wage issues of this dispute, making it hard to find a solution. Due to the significant differences in positions, no meaningful discussion channels have been established.
What remains is the possibility of a strike. The union had initially announced collective actions divided into five stages: ▲joining the union cafe ▲online rallies ▲offline rallies ▲partial strike ▲full strike, and it has now reached the stage just before a partial strike. While Companions, which operates the call center, conducted a partial strike in 2019, this is the first time that all affiliates supporting service operations have announced a strike.
If a strike materializes, service disruptions are inevitable. NIT monitors Naver services 24/7 for outages or security attacks and notifies relevant departments for initial response when problems occur. Even a partial strike that reduces manpower or working hours could disrupt service operations. NTS is responsible for testing before service launches, so a strike could delay service updates.
A Naver union official said, "While we do not intend to cause service interruptions, due to the nature of affiliate work, operational disruptions may occur. Consumer damage is inevitable, and trust in Naver could be shaken. We want to resolve this before a strike, but so far, we are only running parallel lines."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
