'If union demands are met, senior bus drivers would earn 85 million won a year'
'There is ample room to negotiate within the Supreme Court ruling'
'Emergency transport measures, including more subway runs and shuttle buses, are ready'
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon on Monday condemned the Seoul City Bus Workers' Union — affiliated with the Federation of Korean Automobile Workers' Unions — for threatening a full strike, calling it an irresponsible act that would hold commuters hostage.
Oh wrote on his SNS account Monday that the union had announced it would launch a full strike if wage negotiations did not go its way, noting it had been only eight months since a January strike threw Seoul's morning and evening commutes into chaos. He added that it was not normal for citizens to have to worry twice a year about whether they could get to work.
Oh said the dispute stemmed from a Supreme Court ruling that regular bonuses must be included in the calculation of ordinary wages. "The union is currently demanding that ordinary wages be calculated on the basis of 176 working hours per month, while also seeking an additional 7.85 percent raise in the hourly rate," he said.
He said that if all of the union's demands were met, the annual salary of a long-serving city bus driver would jump from last year's level of 68 million won ($50,500) to 85 million won — a near-20 million won increase in a single year. "Such a steep wage hike within one year would be difficult for any company to absorb, and it also falls well outside what citizens — who would ultimately bear the burden — would consider reasonable," he said.
"The intent of the Supreme Court ruling must of course be respected, but using that ruling as a lever to demand a massive wage increase that would place an enormous strain on Seoul's fiscal position all at once is excessive by any measure," Oh said.
Oh said there was ample room to negotiate a reasonable settlement that reflected the Supreme Court ruling. "Even so, demanding additional wage increases on top of the raise already required by the ruling, and once again threatening an all-out strike from the outset, is tantamount to holding citizens' right to mobility hostage in negotiations," he said.
He said city buses serve about 3.8 million passengers a day on average and are "the legs of the city" that must never be allowed to stop.
Oh called on the government and the National Assembly to move immediately to amend the law to designate city bus services as an essential public service. "We can no longer stand by while citizens' daily lives are thrown into turmoil by strike threats every time bus wage negotiations come around," he said.
Oh also addressed the union directly. "You are responsible for the daily movement of millions of citizens. You must never forget that weighty public duty," he said, urging union officials to engage in negotiations with a sense of responsibility to the end rather than unsettling the public with the threat of an all-out strike.
He added that the city would do everything in its power to help labor and management find a reasonable common ground until the very last moment. At the same time, he said, the city would prepare emergency transport measures without gaps — including additional subway runs and the deployment of shuttle buses — in case a strike did occur.
ikson@heraldcorp.com
