[Initial View] Bank Business Hours Must Be Shortened by 1 Hour Finally

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Hwajeong] Things that temporarily changed due to COVID-19 are gradually returning to their original state this year. Social distancing measures began to ease at the beginning of the year and have now almost normalized, with masks no longer required outdoors. Soon, the mask-wearing mandate indoors will also be gradually relaxed. Once indoor mask-wearing is lifted, nearly all aspects of daily life will revert to pre-COVID-19 conditions.

Although most areas have recovered to pre-pandemic levels, bank operating hours have not returned to normal. Originally, bank hours were from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., but due to social distancing measures related to COVID-19, hours were shortened by one hour last July, changing to 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. At that time, when the government strengthened social distancing to Level 4 in the Seoul metropolitan area to curb the COVID-19 outbreak, financial labor and management agreed to shorten bank hours by one hour from July 12 to 23. However, even after the scheduled period ended, the shortened hours were not restored. In October of the same year, the Central Labor-Management Committee, which includes financial labor and management, decided to maintain the shortened hours until the indoor mask mandate was lifted, expanding the reduced hours not only in the metropolitan area but nationwide.

Ultimately, the inconvenience falls entirely on consumers. Office workers have no choice but to squeeze bank visits into their lunch breaks, and because many workers visit banks around the same time, they often end up receiving a waiting ticket and leaving due to time constraints. On top of this, as non-face-to-face financial transactions expand and digital transformation accelerates, bank branches continue to decrease, causing further inconvenience to consumers. Domestic bank branches decreased by 94 in 2019, 216 in 2020, 209 in 2021, and 179 have closed through August this year.

The National Financial Industry Labor Union held a general strike and a rally condemning financial authorities last September, demanding a halt to indiscriminate branch closures and workforce reductions. The union argued, "Closing bank branches in relatively less profitable rural or old downtown areas ignores the public nature of finance," and "Letting employees go through voluntary retirement and not hiring new staff also shirks responsibility toward financial consumers." While disregarding consumer inconvenience caused by shortened hours, the union emphasized the public nature of finance and responsibility to consumers to protect their own interests.

As voices about consumer inconvenience grew louder, the financial labor union recently proposed to the management side the formation of a task force (TF) to lift the shortened operating hours. Previously, financial labor and management had agreed to discuss operating hours in the 2022 sectoral collective bargaining after the indoor mask mandate was lifted. The management side is expected to accept this and soon form the TF and begin consultations. However, since the union is also advocating for a 4.5-day workweek that reduces working hours, it is uncertain whether negotiations will proceed smoothly. If shortened bank hours continue and consumer inconvenience persists, the number of consumers avoiding branches will increase, inevitably leading to further branch closures and workforce reductions. If the union is concerned about branch closures and workforce cuts, their priority should be to extend operating hours to better serve consumers.