Working-hours reform to be revisited if 4.5-day week adopted

Wages to rise 3%; about 10,000 youth intern slots to be added

Flexible start times introduced; unused early-Friday departures to earn compensatory leave

ATM machines of major commercial banks in Seoul. [Herald DB]
ATM machines of major commercial banks in Seoul. [Herald DB]

Bank branches and other financial institutions will push back their opening time to 9:30 a.m. starting next April, under a new labor-management agreement that also raises wages by 3 percent, expands youth internship hiring and introduces flexible start times.

The Financial Industry Employers' Council and the Korea Financial Industry Union concluded their 2026 wage and collective bargaining agreement at their fifth industry-level negotiating session Tuesday — about six months after the two sides first met in April.

The most notable change is the adjustment to branch hours. The five-day workweek will remain in place, but opening time will in principle shift from 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. next April. Individual institutions may set different hours depending on their circumstances, and flexible branch arrangements and flexible working schedules will be used to minimize customer inconvenience. Each institution is to finalize specific measures before the change takes effect.

If working-hours legislation changes in the future — such as the introduction of a four-and-a-half-day week — branch hours will be renegotiated. Employee start times will largely follow the current system, but a new "work-life balance flexible arrival" scheme will allow staff to begin work up to 30 minutes after their scheduled start time, within a one-hour window per week.

The overall wage increase was set at 3.0 percent of total compensation. The actual rate applied at each institution will be determined separately by its own labor and management, taking business conditions into account.

The two sides also agreed to invest in job creation. Using funds equivalent to 0.75 percent of total compensation, institutions will expand youth internship hiring by about 10,000 positions, adjusted to each institution's capacity. An additional 0.25 percent of total compensation will be contributed to the Financial Industry Public Interest Foundation to support entrepreneurship and employment programs for young people and middle-aged workers. Public financial institutions are excluded from these separate agreements.

Employees who are unable to use the existing one-hour early-Friday departure benefit will receive compensatory leave instead. Unused hours can accumulate up to two days per year and must be taken within the same calendar year. The parties also agreed that results from the Financial Supervisory Service's mystery-shopping inspections will not be factored into management evaluations, and that employees will not face sanctions based on a bank's own internal mystery-shopping findings.

Jo Yong-byung, chairman of the Financial Industry Employers' Council, said the agreement was meaningful not only for the wage increase but because labor and management had come together to strengthen the financial industry's social role — including job creation and community contributions.

The shortened branch hours have drawn concern in some quarters about added inconvenience for customers. Banks currently operate from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., but the number of branches at the five major banks has already fallen by 676 — from 4,424 at end-2020 to 3,748 at end-2025. Critics warn that a later opening time, on top of the ongoing branch closures, could further reduce access to in-person banking services for working people and others who rely on face-to-face transactions.


rim@heraldcorp.com