Kia Motors Corp., South Korea’s second-largest carmaker, said Thursday it will suspend overtime work at its domestic plants starting next week due to lower demand from its major markets. (Image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — Kia Motors Corp., South Korea’s second-largest carmaker, said Thursday it will suspend overtime work at its domestic plants starting next week due to lower demand from its major markets.
Kia workers at the carmaker’s three local plants, located in Gwangju in Jeolla Province, and Sohari and Hwaseong in Gyeonggi Province, do not have to work 30 minutes of overtime per day as the company deals with declining sales, particularly from China, and increased inventories, the carmaker said in a statement.
This month, they haven’t worked on weekends due to the same reasons, it said.
In the January-August period, Kia sold 172,674 vehicles in China, down 53 percent from 368,686 units a year earlier. In the United States, sales fell 8.4 percent to 405,462 from 442,544 during the same period.
The company made the decision also to cut labor costs as the Seoul Central District Court ruled last month that fixed bonuses and meal costs are part of ordinary wages and that Kia should pay an overdue amount of 422 billion won (US$373 million), or 39 percent, of what the union had requested.
Under the court ruling, the company has to pay higher overtime, severance and other payments for its workers.
(Yonhap)
