"If Management Pays Overdue Wages Immediately, We Will Consider Proactive Review"
City Bus Labor and Management in Year-Long Dispute Over Ordinary Wages
The Seoul city bus union has announced plans to go on strike starting January 13 next year.
On December 24, the Seoul City Bus Labor Union stated that it had resolved to launch a general strike beginning January 13, 2025, during a general meeting of branch chairpersons held that morning. The union has completed all legal mediation procedures required for collective action such as strikes since May, making a lawful industrial action possible.
On the 28th, commuters were waiting for the bus at a bus stop in Sangam-dong, Seoul. Photo by Jo Yongjun
The union said, "The labor and management of Seoul city buses had previously issued a joint statement pledging to resolve overdue wages based on the Seoul High Court’s appellate ruling on Donga Transportation, and to sincerely discuss wage and collective bargaining for 2025. However, the Seoul Metropolitan Government and management have unilaterally broken this promise and are refusing to pay overdue wages, citing their appeal to the Supreme Court."
The union added, "If the city and management immediately pay overdue wages, ensure equal pay for equal work, abolish human rights-violating labor monitoring, and improve working conditions such as extending the retirement age to the level of other regions, we would be willing to proactively consider the 2025 wage increase based on the wage increase rate for public institutions and other standards."
The core issue in the wage and collective bargaining dispute for Seoul city buses is the restructuring of the wage system around ordinary wages. In December last year, the Supreme Court en banc ruled that regular bonuses must be included in ordinary wages. In October this year, the appellate court also recognized that bonuses should be counted as ordinary wages in a lawsuit filed by Donga Transportation workers.
The management, represented by the Seoul City Bus Transportation Business Association and the Seoul Metropolitan Government, argues that the scope of ordinary wages will expand significantly due to these precedents, causing a sharp increase in labor costs. Therefore, they insist that the wage system should be restructured to include bonuses in the base salary. In contrast, the union maintains that, according to the Supreme Court ruling, bonuses should naturally be included in ordinary wages and paid as such, without any need for restructuring the wage system.
During recent negotiations, the business association reportedly proposed a wage increase of around 10%, similar to the levels offered by other local governments such as Busan and Daegu. According to the Donga Transportation ruling, the wage increase rate calculated by recognizing bonuses as ordinary wages is about 6-7%, so the management’s offer is higher than this rate.
However, the union argues that, based on the Supreme Court en banc decision, simply recognizing bonuses as ordinary wages would naturally result in a wage increase of 12.85% without any additional raise. The union emphasized, "The '10% hourly wage increase' proposed by management is actually an attempt to avoid the 12.85% increase already confirmed by the courts and the Ministry of Employment and Labor, and in effect amounts to a wage cut."
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