KT Pay Hit As Excessive, Bad Example

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KT Pay Hit As Excessive, Bad Example

Korea Telecom's executive management, including the president and vice president, have received salary increases of over 40 percent this year, Kim Young-choon, a lawmaker of the opposition Grand National Party, complained on Monday.

Mr. Kim said that in a Mar. 24 general meeting the company's stockholders agreed to increase the president's salary to 168 million won ($149,000), a 40 percent jump, and the vice president's to 102 million won, a 41.7 percent raise. The executive director's salary was also boosted, he added, by 42.9 percent to 90 million won.

The salaries of general staff, conversely, rose by only 5.5 percent over last year's, in line with an April agreement between labor and management to pave the way for the company's restructuring program, the lawmaker said.

Mr. Kim sounded off against Korea Telecom's top management: "The fact that the company is giving special treatment to the top executives by paying them astronomical sums of money while insulting the general staff with scanty sums of money will do no good for the company, for it is obvious that the morale of the staff will be damaged to a great extent."

The opposition party lawmaker continued that raising the upper management's salaries by over 40 percent while calling on employees to tighten their belts hurts public sector restructuring.

A Korea Telecom official rebutted the attack. "The salary levels are low compared to other companies," he explained, "and we have offered higher salaries in order to ensure that the company continues to operate under professional management." He emphasized that the salary increases were approved in advance by company shareholders in a general meeting.



by Choi Ji-young

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