SsangYong Motor rehires 60% of its workers

SsangYong Motor employees attend a welcoming ceremony on Monday at the company’s factory in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi. The event celebrated the workers’ return to work after they were fired during a mass restructuring program in 2009. [BYUN SUN-GOO]

SsangYong Motor said Monday that it has rehired 60 percent of workers who were sacked amid the carmaker’s restructuring efforts over a decade ago.

The maker of the Rexton and Tivoli SUVs has been mired in protracted disputes with those who left the company against their will in 2009 after it was placed under court receivership.

At that time, 900 workers who carried out a strike at the company’s main Pyeongtaek plant in Gyeonggi were ordered to choose between unpaid leave or voluntary retirement.

Those who decided not to pick either option were later fired.

In 2013, the 454 workers who had chosen unpaid leave were all reinstated, but the 165 fired workers were not permitted to return to work.

After a series of negotiations in 2015, the company and its union agreed to gradually reinstate the fired workers, although some were left out of the agreement.

In September 2018, the company and its union reached an agreement to rehire the remaining 119 fired workers by this year.

Yonhap