Hansol Paper, partner firms boost welfare benefits from 400,000 won to W1m

Hansol Paper's Cheonan factory and its in-house contractors are working to raise welfare benefits for subcontractor workers from 400,000 won ($292) to 1 million won through a joint labor welfare fund — a 2.5-fold increase. The initiative is part of a broader co-prosperity model in which the primary contractor, subcontractors, local government and universities work together to address labor shortages and an aging workforce.

The Korea Labor Foundation said Thursday it held the sixth workplace innovation case-sharing forum of 2026 at the O&City Hotel in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, under the theme of strengthening workplace innovation capacity through primary-subcontractor co-prosperity partnerships and regional social dialogue.

The forum featured workplace innovation consulting cases from Hansol Paper's Cheonan factory and Dong-A Pharmaceutical's Cheonan factory.

Hansol Paper's Cheonan factory joined the consulting program as part of a consortium with three in-house contractors — Gaon ST, Daol-on and Huiwon Tech. While the paper industry is characterized by tight operational links between primary contractors and subcontractors, it faces mounting challenges including an aging workforce, difficulty recruiting young workers and growing reliance on foreign labor. High turnover among new hires due to high-heat and shift-work conditions, and the resulting loss of skilled workers, were also identified as shared problems.

Hansol Paper and its contractors expanded their existing safety-and-health-focused consultation structure into a broader "primary-subcontractor co-prosperity council" that also addresses grievance handling, subcontractor worker welfare and environmental, social and governance issues.

Regional labor-management-civic bodies and related institutions also joined the effort. One contractor hired a young graduate from a local university's contract-based department and is preparing to file regulatory amendments for a continued employment system for older workers, including an extended retirement age. Another contractor received support for special health screenings and follow-up care for its workers through a local health center.

The parties also designed an operational plan to use the joint labor welfare fund to raise subcontractor worker benefits 2.5 times, from 400,000 won to 1 million won.

Dong-A Pharmaceutical's Cheonan factory has maintained cooperative labor-management relations without a single labor dispute in the more than 50 years since its union was established. Through this round of consulting, the factory built a communication system linking a permanent feedback channel, monthly shop-floor meetings with union delegates and an annual member survey.

Procedures were also established to channel grievances and suggestions collected on the shop floor through a grievance committee, a labor-management council and collective bargaining. Rewards for outstanding proposals were strengthened, and the suggestion system was tied to the organization's key performance indicators so that worker input translates into tangible improvements on the factory floor.

Labor and management formed an ESG activities task force and extended their cooperation into the wider community, donating 5,000 bottles of Bacchus to South Chungcheong Province's mobile worker support center in April. On the strength of these results, Dong-A Pharmaceutical's Cheonan factory was named an outstanding labor-management culture company this year.

Korea Labor Foundation Secretary-General Park Jong-pil said the foundation would work to spread a workplace innovation model in which labor, management, primary contractors, subcontractors and local communities join forces to solve the challenges companies face.