Seoul's city bus operators and their union have failed to narrow differences over how to calculate ordinary wages, raising the prospect of another strike. The Seoul City Bus Labor Union will hold an emergency meeting of branch chiefs on the 3rd to discuss the scale and timing of collective action, including a walkout.
The two sides held nine rounds of collective bargaining from March through the 28th of last month without reaching a deal, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the union on the 2nd. The union filed for mediation with the Seoul Regional Labor Relations Commission on the 31st of last month, and the mediation period runs through the 15th of this month.
At the heart of the dispute is the number of contractual monthly working hours used to calculate ordinary wages. On April 30 this year, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling in an ordinary wage lawsuit involving Donga Transportation that recognized bonuses as part of ordinary wages and set contractual monthly working hours at 176. The court, however, sent back part of the ruling, saying unpaid allowances must be calculated based on the guaranteed hours agreed between labor and management even if actual overtime and night work fell short of those hours.
The union argues that the 176-hour standard is therefore already settled and cannot be contested again in the remanded case. It also contends that unpaid wages must be paid according to the ruling rather than negotiated. Management counters that ordinary wage lawsuits involving other bus companies are still pending, making it difficult to apply the 176-hour standard across all of Seoul's city buses on the basis of the Donga Transportation ruling alone. It has proposed first overhauling the pay structure using 209 hours, which includes paid weekly holiday hours, and settling accounts later depending on the outcome of the other lawsuits. For the same pay, a shorter calculation base raises the hourly ordinary wage, increasing overtime and night-work allowances as well as the scale of unpaid wages.
This year's wage talks are also at an impasse. The union is demanding a 7.85% pay increase, while management has proposed a freeze. If no agreement is reached within the mediation period, the union can launch a strike after steps including a vote on industrial action.
In a statement the same day, the union said unpaid wages are "not a subject of negotiation that can be cut or haggled over, but an obligation that must be repaid under the law."
