SC First Bank union to put off planned labor strike

SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- Unionized workers at SC First Bank said Thursday that they will hold off on this week's planned labor strike indefinitely but vowed to continue protests by launching a work slowdown against the bank's move to adopt a merit-based pay system. Unionized members at the South Korean unit of Standard Chartered Plc went back to work on Aug. 29, but they have been staging a slowdown at bank branches and held a sporadic strike. Union spokesman Bae Kwang-jin said that for now, the union plans to postpone a labor strike originally scheduled for Friday for an unspecified period of time, but unionized workers plan to continue to protest against the bank's move to introduce a performance-based pay scheme. More than 2,500 unionized workers at SC First Bank have been on strike since late June, the longest walkout in the local banking sector, in opposition to the bank's move to change the pay system. The bank resumed last Thursday operations of five of its 42 branches that were temporarily shuttered due to the labor strike. SC First Bank temporarily shut down about 10 percent of its nearly 400 branches. Meanwhile, the bank said that Richard Hill, chief executive of SC First Bank, has received requests from parliamentary committees to speak before lawmakers at next week's parliamentary audit sessions. Joo Hee-sun, a bank spokeswoman, said that Hill plans to appear as a witness to explain the bank's positions related to the labor stoppage. SC First Bank is the first lender operating in South Korea to seek an overhaul of the seniority-based salary scheme. Its unionized workers, who account for about half of its 6,500 bank employees, vehemently oppose the move, claiming that it is aimed merely at cutting labor costs and does not jibe with Korean culture.