[Edaily Reporter Lee So-Hyun ] The Naver (NAVER(035420)) labor union is officially announcing its push for “integrated bargaining,” which would discuss the working conditions common to Naver and its major affiliates in a single forum. The union argues that while the company is divided into multiple legal entities, key working conditions—such as incentives and work schedules—are effectively determined by Naver, so the labor-management bargaining structure must also be aligned with the actual management structure.

The Naver labor union will hold a ceremony to announce the integrated bargaining initiative on the 20th and begin full-scale implementation. Although the union has demanded integrated bargaining since its inception in 2018, individual negotiations with each affiliate have continued; however, with the enforcement of the revised Labor Union Act, the union intends to hold the parent company accountable for its substantive employer responsibilities.

On the 12th, the Chemical, Textile, and Food Workers’ Union of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) held a “Forum on Exploring an Integrated Bargaining Structure for the IT Industry” at the National Assembly Members’ Office Building in Yeouido, Seoul, to discuss plans for reorganizing the bargaining structure of IT conglomerates centered on Naver.

“Essentially one company, but 16 separate rounds of bargaining”… Repeated 150 times a year

According to a “Joint Statement” from the Naver Branch, the union has currently concluded collective bargaining agreements with 15 legal entities, including Naver, and is conducting additional negotiations with one other entity. The union is open to members from Naver and its 48 affiliated companies, and as of August this year, 6,200 union members are active across 28 of these entities.

The problem is that a single labor union must negotiate separately with each legal entity over similar issues. According to the union, when wage negotiations for the 16 legal entities are combined, approximately 150 negotiation sessions are held annually, with about 100 negotiation committee members from both labor and management sides each dedicating more than 1,000 hours to negotiations every year.

Oh Se-yoon, Chair of the IT Committee of the Textile, Chemical, and Food Workers’ Union and Chair of the Naver Branch, pointed out, “While the content is mostly the same, when you factor in the legal advisory fees for each subsidiary, we are wasting time and money that could have been avoided.”

The union argued that the disconnect between the form of individual negotiations and the actual structure for determining working conditions is the bigger problem. Chairman Oh said, “The reality is that during wage negotiations, subsidiaries are unable to even present their own proposals until Naver’s settlement proposal is released, and then they reach a settlement at the same level immediately after Naver’s agreement is finalized.”

In fact, the union explained that measures such as the abolition of the comprehensive wage system and the introduction of additional compensation schemes were applied across all affiliates following Naver’s decision, and that affiliate incentives are also determined through a process involving Naver management and executives from each affiliate. They further argued that remote and flexible work arrangements, employee benefits, and internal work systems are also largely operated uniformly.

The union also cited the affiliates’ corporate governance structure as evidence. It explained that Naver holds a large stake in major affiliates, that a significant number of board members at these major affiliates also serve as Naver executives, and that some affiliates rely on transactions with Naver and other affiliates for the majority of their revenue.

In particular, the union argued that the parent company exercises substantial influence over financial management, citing instances where funds remaining after settling operating expenses for certain second-tier subsidiaries were recovered through measures such as capital reductions against payment.

Chairman Oh emphasized, “Core management functions—such as human resources, public relations, accounting, and finance—are all concentrated at headquarters, so subsidiaries are effectively nothing more than departments of the parent company,” adding, “We are not saying that consolidated bargaining is a special privilege; rather, we are proposing that the bargaining format be aligned with the reality that operations are already being managed in an integrated manner.”

Not

a “Leveling” of Wages Across All Affiliates… Only Common Issues to Be Discussed

However, the integrated bargaining demanded by the union does not mean treating Naver and all its subsidiaries as a single company to uniformly standardize wages and working conditions. It is proposed that common group-wide working conditions—such as the comprehensive wage system, remote and flexible work arrangements, and employee benefits—be discussed in higher-level negotiations, while issues specific to individual subsidiaries’ business characteristics or performance be addressed through existing company-level negotiations.

Song Ga-ram, chair of the NCSoft branch of the Textile, Chemical, and Food Workers’ Union, stated, “Integrated bargaining is not about making all companies the same or leveling out performance,” and proposed the following as common agenda items for integrated bargaining: the operating principles of the comprehensive wage system; standards for remote and flexible work; ensuring a minimum level of fairness in workforce management and evaluation systems resulting from the use of artificial intelligence (AI); and minimum standards for employee benefits.

Experts also placed greater emphasis on a negotiation approach centered on issues over which Naver holds substantive decision-making authority, rather than grouping all subsidiaries into a single bargaining unit.

Professor Kwon Oh-sung of Yonsei University Law School cited Article 2, Item 2 of the amended Trade Union Act as the legal basis. He explained that since employer status is recognized within the scope of those in a position to substantively and specifically control and determine working conditions, the parent company can be held responsible for negotiating working conditions over which it exercises actual decision-making authority.

However, Professor Kwon drew a line against treating the entire corporate group as a single employer and attributing all responsibility to the parent company. He proposed, “Rather than grouping the entire corporate group under a single employer, a ‘procedural linkage-type multi-tiered bargaining model’—which maintains existing bargaining units by legal entity while linking bargaining procedures only for common agenda items—could serve as a realistic alternative.”

Professor Moon Jun-hyuk of the Department of Law at Sungshin Women’s University also noted that the need for consolidated bargaining is relatively greater in the case of IT companies—such as Naver and Kakao—where multiple affiliates conduct similar businesses centered around a single platform. He emphasized the need for institutional reform, arguing that it is inefficient for both labor and management to incur significant costs through repeated negotiations on a per-corporation basis.

Park Myeong-jun, a senior research fellow at the Korea Labor Institute, suggested that rather than relying solely on legal disputes and lawsuits surrounding the amended Trade Union Act, it is important for labor and management to establish new bargaining practices on the ground.

Starting with Naver and expanding to the IT industry… “We will create the ‘Pangyo Model’ for labor-management relations”

The Naver union views this integrated bargaining not merely as a reorganization of labor-management relations within a single company, but as a model that can be expanded across the entire IT industry.

The IT industry is characterized by frequent spin-offs, the establishment of subsidiaries, and organizational restructuring, even as developers, planners, designers, and others from various affiliates collaborate on a single service. Conversely, the union points out that labor-management negotiations are fragmented by legal entity, which does not align with the actual decision-making structure.

Union President Song noted that NCSoft has also undergone seven spin-offs and large-scale voluntary resignations over the past year, stating, “Integrated bargaining is about creating a standard interface for the IT industry.” He explained that jointly establishing common working conditions and principles for organizational restructuring could help reduce barriers to collaboration and the loss of skilled personnel.

The Naver union plans to hold a kick-off ceremony for integrated bargaining at 12:00 p.m. on the 20th and demand that Naver participate in full-scale negotiations.

Lim Young-guk, Director of the Policy Research Institute at the Textile, Chemical, and Food Workers’ Union, said, “This initiative will mark the beginning of the ‘Pangyo Model,’ a new milestone in South Korea’s labor-management relations.”

Chairman Oh emphasized, “As we enter the era of AI transformation, if Naver intends to lead its entire group in a single direction, labor-management relations must also be restructured to reflect that reality,” adding, “Naver must responsibly respond to the demand for integrated bargaining from its affiliate companies.”