Prolonged strike to result in merger, abolition of Kookmin, H&CB branches

The government announced plans to merge or abolish branches and suspend some of the operations of Kookmin Bank and Housing & Commercial Bank (H&CB) if the ongoing strike by unionized employees of the two banks continues.

At the same time, the government decided to reprimand employees participating in the strike through salary reductions, suspensions and the laying of criminal charges if they don¡¯t return to their work by Thursday morning.

The government made these resolutions in a meeting of its financial transaction normalization committee. At the meeting, the government defined the strike by Kookmin and H&CB employees as illegal since the issue of merging banks falls in the area of management rights. It also reaffirmed its earlier policy to deal with the walkout strictly based on any related regulations.

Both banks decided to absorb redundant personnel through business operation expansions, such as advancement into new business areas, when employment restructuring becomes inevitable. They promised not to resort to downsizing.

The banks said that anyone who reports to work by the deadline would face no repercussions for their involvement in the strike.

Meanwhile, the government Tuesday temporarily reassigned 719 people, including 552 staff members from Korea Industrial Bank, Nonghyup and Korea Asset Management Corp. (KAMCO), as well as 219 inspectors under the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), to branches of Kookmin and H&CB. It transferred an additional 614 bank employees from 13 other banks Wednesday.