"Hyundai Motors Layoff Settlement is Desirable"

An investment consulting company stated that in its opinion the settlement of the issue of layoffs at Hyundai Motor Co. in August was desirable. Politics and Economics Risk Consulting (PERC), a Hong Kong-based consulting company indicated on September 9 that recent moves by Hyundai to institute layoffs was a test case for this newly introduced system.
PERC said, 'Many experts in Korea suspected that the government is pro-labor because Hyundai was forced to lay off only 277 employees of the 1,538 which it originally wanted to lay off.' However, PERC indicated that Hyundai management actually 'laid off' 10,166 employees among its total of 46,132 through unpaid leave and early retirement. 'This showed management's flexibility with layoff measures', PERC added.
The firm's opinion is that government arbitration prevented conflict between 5,000 union members and 15,000 police. 'Hyundai's layoff reached a 'cruel level' in Korea. It is an important precedent that the nation's most bellicose union (Hyundai) accepted a mass reduction of manpower and layoffs amounting to 19% of total employees', said PERC.
Nevertheless, Korea was selected as the worst country in labor market flexibility and deregulation. According to the survey by the Federation of Korean Industry (FKI) on September 9, Korea ranked 13th in foreign direct investment environment. New Zealand was the best and The Philippines the worst.