Ssangyong Motors Finishes Wage Talks

Ssangyong Motors became Korea’s first carmaker to complete this year’s wage talks.

The carmaker, which has suffered from slumped sales of sports utility vehicles, finished its wage talks with no glitches. It remains to be seen what impact this will have on other carmakers including Hyundai Motor Company whose wage talks came to a deadlock.

According to Ssangyong, 4,854 union members out of 5,182 cast their ballot on Tuesday and 3,142, or 64.73 percent, voted for the wage proposals suggested by management.

The proposals include raising the base pay by 62,000 won, paying a 1 million won bonus to encourage workers to overcome managerial crisis, giving a 1 million won bounty to improve productivity, and revising the collective agreement.

jinhup@donga.com