Opposition expected by unions claiming to open at 9:30
“Agreement is not necessary” position
Public opinion and government pressure burden
On the 30th, when the obligation to wear indoor masks virtually disappears, the business hours of commercial banks are likely to increase again by an hour.
According to the financial sector on the 24th, the financial labor and management held a meeting between the representatives (Kim Kwang-soo, chairman of the Financial Industry Users Council and Park Hong-bae, chairman of the financial union) on the subject of normalizing business hours on the 18th.
The meeting was concluded after the unofficial proposal of the labor union was accepted by Chairman Kim, the head of the Federation of Banks, while discussions by the labor-management working-level task force (TF) regarding the normalization of business hours had been sluggish since the first meeting on the 12th.
Chairman Kim is known to have conveyed his position to the chairman at this meeting, saying, “We cannot delay the normalization of business hours any longer as the indoor mask duty is expected to be lifted on the 30th.”
In addition, they will do their best to negotiate with the union in the future, but if an agreement is not reached, the bank will independently lift the mask and immediately increase business hours by one hour.
Previously, on the 16th, delegations from the financial labor-management industry negotiations (SC Jeil, Hana, Daegu Bank presidents, etc.) also agreed that there was great public inconvenience related to the reduction of bank business hours at the meeting, and after the lifting of the obligation to wear indoor masks, including the restoration of business hours, ‘ There has been a discussion of a plan to normalize the ‘immediate’ bank branches.
“As a result of legal review, labor-management agreement is not required to normalize business hours”
It is from July 12, 2021 that bank business hours, which were originally ‘9 am to 4 pm’, were reduced to ‘9:30 am to 3:30 pm’.
As the government strengthened social distancing in the metropolitan area to four levels, the finance labor and management temporarily agreed to shorten the business hours of banks in the metropolitan area, such as Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon, by one hour from the 12th to the 23rd.
In October of the same year, the Central Labor-Management Committee, in which financial labor and management (Financial Union-Financial Industry Users Council) participated, announced that ‘Business hours are 1 hour until the government’s COVID-19-related quarantine guidelines restrict private gatherings, multi-use facilities, and the obligation to wear indoor masks is lifted. Deciding to keep the shortening,’ the shortening of business hours was expanded nationwide.
Afterwards, labor and management agreed to form a separate task force to discuss this issue again.
The bargaining agreement included the phrase “form a labor-management joint TF to discuss flexible working hours, a 4.5-day work week, and business hours management plans and discuss them in good faith.”
However, the financial management side obtained an interpretation that it is not possible to normalize business hours without a labor-management agreement even after the indoor mask duty has been lifted through recent external legal advice.
The agreement reached by the Central Labor-Management Committee in 2021 is to maintain a 1-hour reduction in business hours ‘until the obligation to wear indoor masks is lifted’, and in the negotiations in 2022, as it was agreed only to discuss related issues through TF, after the indoor mask regulation was lifted, It is the logic that labor-management agreement is not a prerequisite for restoring ramen business hours.
▲ A commercial bank’s automated teller machine (ATM) in Jongno-gu, Seoul. yunhap news
Union “Management, unconditionally stick to the past”
Lee Bok-hyun, head of the Financial Supervisory Service, said on the 10th, “Despite the normalization of national economic activities with the lifting of social distancing, the continued shortening of bank business hours continues to cause inconvenience. Please do it,” he urged.
However, in a position statement announced on the 20th, the financial union said, “The financial union will start business at 9:30 as it is now, but the closing time will be delayed from 15:30 to 16:00. “However, users are frozen in a few words by the heads of financial supervision, who were not interested in the issue of bank store closures, and are only sticking to the position of ‘unconditional regression to the past’.”
In addition, he added, “We urge the normal holding of the TF delegation meeting on the 27th, as proposed by the union.”
However, it is unclear whether the management, which has already taken the position of ‘normalizing business hours immediately after the indoor mask is lifted’, will accept the TF delegation meeting on the 27th if the union continues to stick to partial extension of business hours.
From the union’s point of view, it is difficult to convince union members who are accustomed to shortening business hours internally, but it is not easy to take collective actions such as strikes due to external pressure demanding normalization.
News24
