Dispute over base pay calculation, wage hike leaves both sides at impasse

Strike could disrupt more than 7,000 buses a day if second mediation fails

Route buses operate near the bus transfer center at Seoul Station. [Yonhap]
Route buses operate near the bus transfer center at Seoul Station. [Yonhap]

Seoul's city bus union has announced a strike for Wednesday, raising the prospect of disruptions to more than 7,000 buses a day. The union passed a strike authorization vote as labor and management remain deadlocked over how to calculate ordinary wages and the size of a pay increase.

The Seoul City Bus Labor Union, affiliated with the Federation of Korean Automobile Workers' Unions, said Friday that 87.94 percent — or 16,089 members — of workers at 61 general bus companies voted in favor of strike action in a ballot on industrial action for the 2026 wage agreement. Total union membership stands at 18,296, with 16,716 casting ballots.

A separate vote held Friday among workers at three branch-line bus companies also cleared the threshold, with 80.50 percent of the 323 members voting in favor of strike action.

Labor and management have held nine rounds of collective bargaining since March but have failed to reach an agreement. The union filed for labor dispute mediation late last month. After a first mediation session failed Thursday, a second session is scheduled for Tuesday.

The two sides remain far apart on the method for calculating ordinary wages and the scale of any pay increase. The union is demanding that ordinary wages be calculated on a 176-hour monthly basis with a 7.85 percent hourly wage increase, but the Seoul Bus Transport Business Association, representing management, has made clear it cannot accept those terms.

The reference hours used to convert a monthly ordinary wage into an hourly rate matter because a lower figure results in a higher effective hourly wage — benefiting workers. Management has proposed 209 hours as the reference. In addition, the union had already put forward a 10.32 percent wage increase proposal at the ninth round of wage talks last month.

If both the 10.32 percent wage increase and the additional ordinary wage increase based on the 176-hour standard — estimated at 16.44 percent — were applied as the union demands, the annual cost would exceed 500 billion won ($374 million), the association said.

With Friday's strike authorization vote passed, the conditions for a walkout are now in place should Tuesday's mediation session collapse. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said it is preparing emergency transport measures in case a strike materializes. According to the association, more than 7,000 buses operate in Seoul each day, serving an average of more than 3.79 million passengers daily.


eyre@heraldcorp.com