Korean Parcel Delivery Workers Plan to Go on Strike

Companies pay these parcel workers by each delivery they complete and not by the hour which is the issue at the center of this strike. Likely they are paid this way to encourage quick completion of each delivery to make more money. Pay by the hour would actually encourage working slower to accumulate more hours to be paid:

 Some 4,000 parcel delivery workers will refuse to sort parcels in protest of heavy workloads ahead of the Chuseok holiday, a civic advocacy group said Thursday.

The civic task force working for the rights of delivery workers and associated with the progressive Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) said that the parcel delivery workers will stop sorting out parcels starting from Monday if their demand for additional manpower goes unmet.

“Sorting parcels is the primary reason for their long working hours,” the group said during a press conference at the KCTU headquarters in Seoul. “Half of their working hours of 13-16 hours a day focus only on sorting parcels with no additional pay.” (…….)

The group argued that the workers are paid per delivery and that their time-consuming sorting job goes unpaid.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.