Unintended Snag

 

The plan for the earlier-than-scheduled consolidation between Hana Bank and the Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) is going awry, as the latter’s management is looking to punish 898 union members who participated in a general meeting recently. A personnel committee meeting will be held from Sept. 18 to 24 to discuss the issue.

The KEB labor union held the general meeting on Sept. 3 in order to take a vote on the early consolidation. The voting was canceled, however, due to the lack of a quorum, and the union has maintained that this was because of interference from the management. Situations are getting worse under the circumstances, as KEB is trying to punish the members.

The first mention of the necessity of the early merger was made on July 3, when Hana Financial Group Chairman Kim Jung-tae said it was about time to talk over the issue in earnest. Since then, Hana Financial Holdings, Hana Bank, and KEB have tried to persuade KEB employees.

Still, the KEB labor union has been dead set against it, all the way to the point that a few industry insiders predicted the consolidation would not be attained until October as scheduled. The disciplinary action against the union members can be regarded as the Hana Financial Group’s will to not wait any longer, but it appears to be backfiring for now.

The union recently accused president Kim Han-jo of interruption of the general meeting. It also charged the president and executive members with unfair labor practices on Sept. 15. Two days later, civic organizations such as the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy had a press conference to demand the withdrawal of both the consolidation and punishment.

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