Hyundai Motors: Avoids Strike

SEOUL, June 18 Reuters reported that in the land of the World Cup,Hyundai Motor Co, said today the company had reached agreement with a workers' union on wages and bonuses, averting a planned full strike.

"Both sides reached a tentative agreement after two days of intensive talks," a company spokesman told Reuters.

Hyundai's 38,000 unionised workers had threatened to launch an all-out strike from Tuesday to demand higher wages and bonuses if talks with management failed.

The unionised workers have been taking sporadic industrial action since wage negotiations and collective bargaining between the union and management began late in October.

Hyundai Motor shares rose as high as 4.4 percent on the news. They were up almost three percent at 40,950 won at 0210 GMT, outperforming the broader stock index, which was up 1.44 percent.

The partial stoppage caused the carmaker a delay production and delivery of about 27,300 vehicles, creating a loss of some 350 billion won ($284.6 million), as of Monday, a company spokesman said.

Part of the agreement included a rise of 95,000 won ($77.24) in basic monthly salaries and payment of performance bonuses worth two months' wages, a joint statement said.

Workers will also receive performance bonuses worth one and a half months wages unpaid in 1997 and another 1.5 million won in one-time extra bonus, it said.

"The preliminary agreement will be put to a vote by the entire union workers on Friday for final approval," a union spokesman said.

Unionised workers have demanded a 12.5 percent wage increase, or around 128,880 won a month.

Workers also demanded 30 percent of Hyundai's net profit this year to be spread out as performance bonuses to workers.

With Hyundai Motor forecasting sales to hit a record 1.72 million units for the year against 1.51 million in 2000, workers asked for a bigger slice of the pie.