Pernod Ricard South Korea workers to strike

Pernod Ricard employees in South Korea are to go on strike next week due to disputes over layoffs, reports claim.

Local reports claim Pernod Ricard South Korea Labour union members are to go on strike next week

According to The Korea Times, the labour union of the French drinks group’s South Korean arm is arguing that nearly 30 employees will leave the company by 1 July under its Early Retirement Program (ERP).

Union leaders have claimed that this amounts to “forced” layoffs without sufficient grounds and submitted a petition to the Ministry of Employment and Labour calling for state intervention.

This is apparently the sixth such ERP that Pernod has undertaken in Korea, with 60 jobs cut between 2000 and 2006 and 80 between 2007 and last year. Union members have therefore planned to go on strike next week on 26 June.

“A layoff has been carried out every three or four years without convincing explanations,” Kim Guee-hyun, leader of the firm’s labor union, told The Korea Times.

“Reducing workforce is normally considered a last resort to save a financially troubled company. But this is not the case. Pernod Ricard Korea is financially healthy enough.”

However, a spokesperson for Pernod said that the ERP application has been “wholly voluntary” and that the company had recommended employees to “consider the application positively” but did not “exert any coercion to apply”.

Pernod Ricard is currently embarking on a cost cutting plan called Project Allegro in an attempt to save 150 million euros over the next three years.

It was reported yesterday that the group was also considering a reorganisation of it French distribution units – a move that could lead to around 60 job losses.