Workers at Naver Z, the operator of metaverse platform Zepeto, walked off the job for a full day in protest against the company's decision to freeze annual salaries.
The Naver chapter of the Korean Chemical, Textile and Food Industry Workers' Union, affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, said on the 23rd that about 120 members at Naver Z, roughly 70% of its membership at the company, took part in the full strike.
The union had earlier held a four-hour partial strike on the 9th, demanding a 5.3% wage increase, the withdrawal of the unilateral salary freeze and an explanation of the company's financial condition. The union said it escalated to a full strike after management declined to talk and offered no position on the demands.
About 20 members held an online rally streamed live on YouTube on the same day, arguing that the company is passing the cost of its own management failures onto employees in the form of frozen wages. They directed their criticism squarely at CEO Kim Chang-wook, who concurrently heads four Naver affiliates including Naver Z, Snow, Kream and Cake.
Of the four companies Kim leads, Naver Z and Cake have frozen employee salaries this year.
The union said Kim has effectively avoided communicating with staff, holding only two company-wide town hall meetings, in April 2024 and February 2025, since he took sole charge of the Zepeto service.
"A culture of holding authority without taking responsibility keeps repeating itself at Naver," said Oh Se-yoon, head of the Naver union chapter. "They do not share authority in normal times, but when the company runs into trouble, they push the causes and the responsibility onto the staff."
Oh again called for the salary freeze to be withdrawn and for an open debate with Kim. The union also said it would send public letters of inquiry to Kim and to Lee Hae-jin, Naver's global investment officer, immediately after the Chuseok holiday, seeking answers on the causes of the deteriorating business performance and on the wage freeze.
If management remains unresponsive after the one-day strike, the union said it plans to further escalate its collective action, including a five-day consecutive strike starting on the 19th of next month.
