Hanwha to turn 850 temporary workers into regular employees

Hanwha to turn 850 temporary workers into regular employees. August. 02, 2017 07:33. by Eun-Taek Lee nabi@donga.com.

Hanwha Group officially announced that it will turn 850 non-regular employees to regular sworkers, a pledge that the conglomerate had earlier made to President Moon Jae-in. Hanwha said Tuesday that it will switch non-regular employees working in its affiliates to a regular position from September through June next year. At a meeting of businessmen with the president at the Presidential Office last week, Hanwha Vice Chairman Geum Choon-soo had told President Moon, "Hanwha has set up a solar power cluster to contribute to job creation," adding, "We will turn 850 workers to regular employees."

More than 660 employees in the service affiliates including Hanwha Hotel and Resorts as well as some 190 people in the manufacturing and financial service affiliates will be eligible for the switch. They include part-time employees or interns employed in the guest room management sectors in hotels and resorts, as well as those in the cooking, serving, food and beverage materials management and facility management fields. 

Hanwha said that the positions that become vacant after the switch will be filled by hiring regular status employees or interns under condition they are turned to regular employees. This means that the hiring structure will be continually changed to embrace more regular positions and not remain a stop gap measure. Hanwha had switched 2,043 non-regular employees to regular status in March 2013, the first among 10 largest chaebols to promote a switch of non-regular employees to a regular position.  

The latest announcement by Hanwha is likely to impact the business circle. GS and Lotte among other chaebols that attended the meeting with the president are especially likely be affected. A report released by the Employment and Labor Ministry last month showed that the ratio of non-regular employees was 30 percent at GS, 24.4 percent at Lotte, 17.7 percent at Hanwha, 11.1 percent at Doosan and 10 percent at Hanjin. "Switching non-regular employees to regular status is the government's key to job creation policy and also the president's main area of interest, and companies are likely to be considering ways to contribute," a source at the business circle said.