SK Hynix Union Negotiations Underway... Technical Office Workers Propose 6.5% Raise

Technical Office Workers' Union Starts Collective Bargaining
Full-time Workers' Union Completes First Round of Negotiations

The SK Hynix Technical Office Workers' Union has proposed a 6.5% increase in base salary and entered into formal wage negotiations with management. The SK Hynix Full-time Production Workers' Union, which conducts separate negotiations, has completed its first round of talks.

The Technical Office Workers' Union notified its members of the 2023 wage negotiation proposal and held an introductory wage negotiation meeting with management on the 1st at the headquarters in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. They will proceed with the formal wage negotiation process going forward. Depending on future developments, they plan to send an official letter to management.

The union proposed a 6.5% wage increase based on base salary and the abolition of the annual salary cap this year. They also demanded that productivity incentive (PI) payments be made solely based on production achievement and that 15% of operating profit be paid as incentives. The proposal includes abolishing the 1000% cap on profit-sharing bonuses (PS) and providing PS payments to retirees. They also called for the abolition of the wage peak system.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The Technical Office Workers' Union is affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and mainly consists of college-educated office workers and engineers. SK Hynix production workers working in semiconductor factories belong to the Icheon and Cheongju factory full-time production workers' union under the Federation of Korean Trade Unions. Since SK Hynix operates a multiple union system, wage negotiations are conducted separately by each union.

The Icheon and Cheongju factory full-time production workers' union has completed its first round of negotiations. Management reportedly conveyed to the union a proposal to maintain the wage increase already reflected earlier this year according to the inflation rate. SK Hynix announced in January that for full-time employees with career-based pay, monthly wages would increase by 90,000 KRW, and for professionals, by 60,000 KRW.

To alleviate employee inconvenience caused by delays in wage negotiations, SK Hynix operates a system that applies a certain percentage increase in advance at the beginning of the year. This system, previously applied only to technical office workers, has been expanded to all job categories starting this year. For technical office workers under the annual salary system, 2% of the annual salary has already been pre-applied to wages.