| A view of a commercial bank loan window in downtown Seoul. 2021.9.13/News1 © News1 Reporter Shin Woong-soo |
While the obligation to wear indoor masks disappears from the 30th, labor and management in the banking sector are in conflict over the normalization of ‘one-hour shortened business’. The management side is in the position that business hours should be immediately normalized when the indoor mask is canceled according to the contents of the original agreement, but the union is in a tight confrontation that the opening hours delayed by 30 minutes should be kept according to the changed business environment.
According to the financial sector on the 23rd, on the 20th, the financial union issued a ‘financial union statement on the issue of bank business hours related to the government’s policy to remove indoor masks’ and said, “The Financial Industry Users Council has requested a task force (TF) on the 27th. We urge the normal holding of the delegation meeting,” he said.
Bank business hours have been shortened by one hour from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm from July 2021. Existing business hours are 9:00 am – 4:00 pm. At the time, labor and management decided to discuss whether to shorten business hours when the mandatory wearing of indoor masks was lifted at industry-level collective bargaining.
An official from a commercial bank explained, “At the time, labor and management temporarily agreed to shorten business hours to guarantee the health rights of bank clerks who had to consult with customers for a long time.”
The government decided to adjust indoor mask wearing from ‘mandatory’ to ‘recommended’ from the 30th of this month on the 20th, but as consumer complaints escalate, the financial labor unions have been discussing the normalization of business hours from before. On the 12th of this month, the TF was launched and the first executive level meeting was held, and on the 16th, a delegation meeting was held, but an agreement was not reached.
This is because the management insists that the normalization of bank business hours should be carried out immediately when indoor masks are lifted according to the original agreement, but the union protests that normalization of business hours has been discussed at industry-level collective bargaining.
In addition, the union is sticking to the plan of reducing business hours by 30 minutes from the previous one, such as keeping the opening time of 9:30 am even if the closing time of the bank is returned to 4:00 pm at 3:30 pm.
The union said, “We proposed to the employers that the opening of business during the morning hours, when there are few customers, would remain at 9:30, but the closing time would be delayed from the current 3:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.” He insisted that he was frozen by a few words from the heads of financial policy supervision, who had no interest in the shutdown issue, and was only sticking to the position of ‘unconditional return to the past’.”
An official from the employers’ association said, “Banks have a strong idea of returning business hours to their original state.” “The agreement also states that the business period will be shortened until the indoor mask is canceled. We have conveyed the related position to the union side,” he said.
Labor and management are unable to narrow their differences over the issue of readjusting bank branch operating hours, only adding to consumer inconvenience.
An official in the financial sector said, “Individual banks are also feeling the burden of arbitrarily normalizing business hours to the past standards.”
