Discussion Begins on Workforce Redeployment

The labor and management of Hyundai Motor Co. hold a ceremony to appoint advisors to the Employment Stabilization Committee at the main building of the Ulsan factory on May 19.

The labor and management of Hyundai Motor Co. will discuss workforce redeployment and retraining to adapt to the era of future mobility.

The company’s Labor-Management Advisory Committee concluded in 2019 that the automaker will have to reduce its workforce by 20 percent as the automobile industry will be reorganized towards electric vehicles.

Accordingly, the company’s labor and management will draw up a concrete action plan for the transition this year. The labor union began to work with the management to prepare for the coming era of future cars.

The two sides held a ceremony on May 19 to appoint advisors to the Employment Stabilization Committee at the main building of Hyundai Motor’s Ulsan Plant. The committee will seek solutions to employment problems and act as a mediator between the labor and management. In 2019, the two sides invited five external experts as advisors and held many seminars with them. A new group of external experts were invited as advisors for 2020.

In 2019, the advisory committee concluded that Hyundai Motor should increase the proportion of electric vehicles and reduce manufacturing workers by 20 percent by 2025. At the time, the labor and management agreed to reduce the workforce through natural reductions such as retirements. A debate on employee redeployment and retraining is expected to begin in earnest in 2020.

Auto industry insiders expect that a concrete plan to redeploy Hyundai's production manpower will come out in 2020 as the government's will to support the automobile industry is coupled with the labor union’s cooperation.

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