Shoppers visit a department store in central Seoul on Sept. 23, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Department store salespeople from three foreign cosmetic brands will go on strike for two days during Chuseok holiday, demanding improvements to their work environment, welfare and work-life balance.
Labor unions from L’Oreal Korea, Chanel Korea and Shiseido Korea under the Korean Federation of Service Workers Union are organizing the strike, with some 1,500 department store salespeople nationwide expected to participate.
Workers staged a protest on Thursday against the decision from department stores to extend working hours by another 30 minutes on weekdays to prepare for upcoming Chuseok holiday.
Members of the labor unions from three cosmetics firms showed up at company headquarters on Tuesday in strike uniforms, demanding higher wages and improvements to their work environment.
They claimed that salespeople are the only ones hurt by the plunging number of customers following the coronavirus outbreak, since the headquarters are reaping record profits from online sales while cutting off incentives for offline vendors.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
