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MSD Korea improves employee welfare upon birth of union
  • By Nam Doo-hyun
  • Published 2018.11.21 12:56
  • Updated 2018.11.21 12:56
  • comments 0

Workers at MSD Korea said they have formed a labor union to curb the management’s unilateral decisions on employee welfare policies.

The labor union is the first since the foundation of the Korean offshoot of the U.S.-based multinational drugmaker. MSD Korea’s labor union became the 17th member of Korea Democratic Pharmaceutical Union (KDPU) as of Monday.

The formation of the labor union at MSD Korea stemmed from employees’ repeated complaints that the management unilaterally made decisions on employee welfare policies, a KDPU official said.

“It’s been only a few days since the labor union was established but the number of labor union members is higher than expected,” the KDPU official said. “This shows how the management has been harsh on employees. There must have been a lot of problems with wages, labor, and personnel assessment system.”

After the creation of the labor union, MSD Korea’s management reportedly began to address the issues raised by employees. As the first step, the management promised to pay for working during annual leave, which had not been compensated for in the past.

“After the labor union notified the management of its joining of KDPU, I received an e-mail from the personnel department on Tuesday that the company would compensate for working during annual leave,” said an employee at MSD Korea who joined the labor union. “The department said it would apply the new policy retroactively to the last year’s work.”

According to the employee, the company used to encourage workers to spend annual leave before the end of the year because the management would not compensate for unused annual leave.

However, the management changed the rule after workers joined the labor union, he said.

“Unlike in the past, MSD Korea has been making top-down decisions a lot lately. Workers have been unhappy about this a lot,” the employee said.

Employees were also angry about a foreign executive’s intimidating act on a subordinate, he added.

“A foreign executive tore up a train ticket and threw the pieces on the face of the subordinate. But the management did not take any measure. This was probably there was no labor union,” the employee said.

The company seemed to be working out measures such as compensation for work during annual leave after the establishment of the labor union, he said.

MSD Korea said it would respect the formation of the labor union, as it is workers’ rights.

“The company is aware of the establishment of the labor union. Doing so is employees’ rights. We respect the establishment and activities of the labor union,” an official at MSD Korea said.

Other members of KDPU include one domestic pharmaceutical firm and 15 Korean units of multinational pharmaceuticals. They are Kolon Pharm, Sanofi-Pasteur, Janssen Korea, AstraZeneca Korea, Baxter Korea, Takeda Korea, Novartis Korea, Merck Korea, Ferring Pharmaceuticals Korea, BMS Korea Pharmaceutical, Allergan Korea, Fresenius-kabi Korea, Novo Nordisk Pharma Korea, Zuellig Pharma Korea, AbbVie Korea, and Astellas Pharma Korea.

hwz@docdocdoc.co.kr

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