Chang In-hwa, chairman of the POSCO Holdings Group (Image courtesy of the Korea Iron & Steel Association)
SEOUL, Jun. 7 (Korea Bizwire) – Facing intensifying headwinds in the global steel industry, POSCO, South Korea’s largest steelmaker, has reinstated a five-day workweek for its executives, just four months after pioneering a four-day schedule in an attempt to improve work-life balance.
According to industry sources, POSCO notified employees last month that senior managers would return to the traditional Monday-to-Friday schedule, abandoning an experiment that had allowed office workers to condense two weeks’ hours into nine days so they could take every other Friday off.
The reversal underscores the deepening crisis confronting POSCO and other Korean steel giants grappling with oversupply from China, slumping demand amid the global economic slowdown and pressure to transition to more environmentally sustainable production.
“The steel industry is facing an unprecedentedly challenging situation due to the shift toward a low-carbon economy, persistent trade uncertainties and intensifying competition with neighboring countries,” Chang In-hwa, chairman of the POSCO Holdings Group, said at a ceremony last week commemorating Steel Day in South Korea.
For POSCO’s core steelmaking operations, operating profits plunged nearly 69% over the past two years, from 6.65 trillion won in 2021 to 2.08 trillion won last year. Its operating profit margin tumbled from 16.7% to 5.3% over the same period.
The strains have prompted POSCO to join a growing list of South Korean conglomerates implementing emergency management initiatives as the country’s export-driven businesses bear the brunt of the global downturn.
In April, Samsung mandated a six-day workweek for executives across all its affiliates. And SK Group revived weekend management meetings, requiring top leaders to convene on Saturdays for the first time since abolishing the practice in 1999 when it adopted a five-day schedule.
While justifying the policy reversal as a necessity for senior POSCO managers to take the lead in instilling a heightened sense of crisis, the return to a longer workweek stands in contrast to the original rationale of improving work-life balance and productivity when the four-day schedule was introduced in January.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
