(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead para; UPDATES all through)
By Lee Haye-ah
SEOUL, Jan. 13 (Yonhap) — Hanging unionized intracity bus drivers in Seoul will resume negotiations with the administration, officers mentioned, after launching an indefinite strike Tuesday over wages that suspended all providers and induced main visitors disruptions.
All intracity bus providers had been suspended ranging from the primary service at 4 a.m. after wage negotiations between union officers and the administration broke down Monday.
Many visitors disruptions had been reported throughout the capital throughout the morning rush hour, with subway stations crowded with commuters and a few opting to stroll to work in sub-zero temperatures.
Union officers and the administration will maintain a brand new spherical of negotiations at 3 p.m. Wednesday on the request of the Seoul department of the Nationwide Labor Relations Fee, fee officers mentioned.
A signboard at a bus cease in Seoul on Jan. 13, 2026, reveals all buses are parked at a depot. (Yonhap)
The administration had provided a wage enhance of 10.3 % in step with a Supreme Court docket ruling that common bonuses ought to develop into a part of an worker’s common wage. To scale back the burden of the added value, nonetheless, it proposed establishing a brand new wage system that features bonuses within the base pay.
The union rejected the proposal, nonetheless, demanding that the extra funds ensuing from the ruling be excluded from present negotiations, and that the administration elevate wages by 3 % with out revising the wage system, prolong the retirement age to 65 and abolish pay discrimination.
Greater than 7,300 buses run on 394 routes operated by 64 bus corporations, all of that are members of the union.
The Seoul metropolitan authorities has supplied different transport means for residents, together with by including trains to subway providers throughout the morning rush hour and lengthening late-night subway operations to 2 a.m. Wednesday.
Native ward places of work will even run free shuttle buses to and from subway stations.
hague@yna.co.kr
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