Recently, the Korea Geoje Tongyeong Gukseong Contractors' Union said that it "wants to solve the problem of unpaid wages for subcontracted workers in the shipbuilding industry." However, they said that Hanwha Marine and Samsung Heavy Industries have not increased the advance payment of wages.
The organisation said the performance of main contractor shipyards has improved significantly as the boom in South Korea's shipbuilding industry continues. Hanwha Marine made an operating profit of 52.9 billion won in the first quarter of 2024, and Samsung Heavy Industries made an operating profit of 77.9 billion won. "Shipbuilding subcontract workers, who are responsible for more than 80 per cent of production operations, are suffering from unpaid wages."
"In February, Korea's Ministry of Employment and Labour determined that Hanwha Marine owed 500 million won in back wages and Samsung Heavy Industries owed 5 billion won in back wages. However, the amount of wages owed by Hanwha Marine increased to 1.5 billion won in May, and Samsung Heavy Industries continued to delay the payment of wages," the organisation added.
The organisation also claimed that the reason for the wage arrears during the period of high shipbuilding orders was that the main contractor shipyards paid too little in advance, making it impossible for the shipbuilding subcontractors to pay all of the workers due to the fact that all of the extra costs brought about by the deterioration of the employment structure (the expansion of the size of shipbuilding subcontracted workers) were being shifted on to the shipbuilding subcontractors.
The organisation said, "In order to fundamentally solve the problem of subcontractors' wage arrears, it is necessary to increase the subcontractors' pre-paid wages. However, Hanwha Marine and Samsung Heavy Industries did not increase the prepaid wages." Moreover, an eye-opening incident occurred.
Samsung Heavy Industries took the liberty of diverting the advance wage payments that were supposed to be paid to workers to settle its own debts, causing the shipbuilding subcontractors to go out of business. One of Samsung Heavy Industries' shipbuilding subcontractors, which had about 250 shipbuilding subcontractors, including 50 regular workers and 200 temporary workers, suddenly announced its closure on 17 June, when it was in the middle of shipbuilding work. However, with the announcement of the company's closure, the payment of scheduled wages has been delayed.
The Korea Geoje Tongyeong Gusongbuilding Contractors' Union said, "This is unfair even from a legal point of view. Under the Wage Claims Protection Act, workers have a priority right to repayment of their wages."
https://www.cnss.com.cn/html/shipbuilding/20240708/354003.html
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