Banks in Korea have reduced customer service hours by 30 minutes. Korea’s bank branches will open 30 minutes later starting from April next year, reducing customer service hours under a tentative labor-management agreement reached Monday.
What are working timings?
Standard Business Hours: Staff will work from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Friday Early Cut-off: On Fridays, customer intake and public counters will close 30 minutes early (at 3:30 p.m.) to give employees a head start on weekend wrap-up.
New Agreement Details
Under the agreement, branches will open at 9:30 a.m., instead of the current 9 a.m., while closing hours will remain unchanged at 4 p.m.
The tentative deal between the Korean Financial Industry Union, which represents workers at major commercial and policy banks, and the Korea Financial Industry Employers Association also calls for a 3 percent increase in total wages.
The negotiations started in April and reached the tentative deal after about five months of negotiations. The unions had announced a strike on Wednesday if their demands were not met.
The flexible work schedule has been allowed for employees. Employees can delay their start time by up to one hour per week, with a maximum of 30 minutes per day. It also introduces a system for compensatory leave and changes to employee performance evaluations.
It also calls for improvements to the mystery shopping system, which is currently used to assess customer service at bank branches. Employees will not face disciplinary action based on mystery shopping results.
Eligibility for parental leave extended until the end of the school year when a child is in sixth grade, while expanding reduced working hours for employees with children in the lower grades of elementary school.
The “Last Call” rule has been introduced, which stops new customer intake 30 minutes early on Fridays. Any untaken early-departure time can be converted into compensatory leave up to two days a year.
If workers cannot use their 30-minute early departure on Fridays, the time can be accumulated and converted into up to two days of paid compensatory leave per year.
Banks will increase financial support for employee health checkups, preventative care, and medical expenses.
