The labor union at Mirae Asset Securities (006800.KS) said it plans to hold an outdoor rally, including a demonstration and march, to protest an intensive inspection by the Financial Supervisory Service into allegedly improper sales practices at the brokerage's hub branches.
The union announced the plan in a statement on the 17th, saying it would "thoroughly collect cases from all brokerages and financial firms that are seen as abusive inspections by the FSS, and actively cooperate with the National Assembly so they can be discussed at the parliamentary audit of government agencies."
Industry watchers said the dispute has brought the supervisory authority's inspection practices under scrutiny, noting that the union issued a second statement on the 17th after one on the 16th, signaling a hard-line response.
The union also said it would survey employees who were questioned during the inspection. "With the Korea Exchange extending trading hours, employees are already working until 8 p.m., yet staff based outside Seoul were summoned to the head office in Centre 1, forced to travel for more than an hour or two and then kept waiting for an hour," the union said. "The union plans to closely verify and document the scope and duration of the inspection, requests for documents, demands for personal information and calls for disciplinary action."
"The authority to supervise was not given so that it can lord over employees of financial companies," the union said. "We hope the FSS will once again reflect on the fairness and necessity of its inspections and on procedural legitimacy."
