Doosan Infracore, a key affiliate of the Doosan Group, asked its employees to consider a voluntary resignation, and in the process plainly revealed the "two faces" of the chaebol company and its attitude toward the youth unemployment problem. Doosan Infracore has been restructuring its personnel of over 3,000 office workers since December 8, and apparently the company is even asking its twenty-something and thirty-something workers to consider voluntary retirement.
It may be called "voluntary resignation," but for workers who have no other choice, this is nothing other than a "resignation of despair." Voluntary resignation, which used to be something for those in their forties and fifties, has become an option for those in their twenties and thirties, because the company has set a target of reducing the workforce by 25~80% depending on the department and is pushing ahead with the resignations without any age limit. In the process, a 23-year-old female employee who joined the company less than a year ago is facing pressure to resign.
Doosan Infracore is heartlessly pressuring employees to submit voluntary resignations because of a business crisis: the company suffered net losses of over 200 billion won just in the third quarter of this year. Doosan Infracore's management crisis came about because of excessive financial costs after recklessly acquiring Bobcat, a U.S. company, and because of deteriorating profitability due to the slowing of the Chinese construction industry. When a company faces a management crisis, it may be inevitable for it to reduce its employees. The problem is whether the chaebol owner or executives put in ample effort to minimize the restructuring of its workforce. In the case of Doosan Infracore, this is already the fourth time that the company has asked its employees to voluntarily resign this year and over 800 workers have been kicked out of their jobs, but Doosan continues to focus only on reducing its workforce.
In particular, the last three voluntary retirement requests targeted managers or higher ranking employees, but this time, they are aiming at mostly assistant managers and junior employees who have been with the company less than five years, triggering controversy. We don't know how much the company plans to save on costs by laying off young employees in their twenties and thirties, but the nine affiliates of the Doosan Group had 8.9 trillion won in internal reserves as of the end of the first quarter this year. In addition, Park Yong-man, chairman of the Doosan Group, drove new employees, who overcame challenges to join the company dreaming the job of a lifetime, into the pain of unemployment while appointing his 36-year-old eldest son as executive director of the group's duty free business this year. This clearly shows the double-faced nature of the chaebol, speaking of resolving the youth unemployment problem, while thoroughly ignoring their social responsibility.
In this situation, it is questionable as to how much hope the government's labor reforms, which expands temporary and agent workers while allowing easier layoffs, will give our youth. Allowing businesses the freedom for more layoffs and to expand irregular workers will only let businesses replace regular workers with irregular workers and make the young people, who barely managed to find a regular job, suffer job insecurity. We urgently need to reform the chaebol to prevent businesses from easily shifting the responsibility of business crises on to the workers especially in times of economic difficulties. Labor reforms allowing easier layoffs is not the answer.
It may be called "voluntary resignation," but for workers who have no other choice, this is nothing other than a "resignation of despair." Voluntary resignation, which used to be something for those in their forties and fifties, has become an option for those in their twenties and thirties, because the company has set a target of reducing the workforce by 25~80% depending on the department and is pushing ahead with the resignations without any age limit. In the process, a 23-year-old female employee who joined the company less than a year ago is facing pressure to resign.
A Doosan Group advertisement with the slogan, "People Are the Future"
Doosan Infracore is heartlessly pressuring employees to submit voluntary resignations because of a business crisis: the company suffered net losses of over 200 billion won just in the third quarter of this year. Doosan Infracore's management crisis came about because of excessive financial costs after recklessly acquiring Bobcat, a U.S. company, and because of deteriorating profitability due to the slowing of the Chinese construction industry. When a company faces a management crisis, it may be inevitable for it to reduce its employees. The problem is whether the chaebol owner or executives put in ample effort to minimize the restructuring of its workforce. In the case of Doosan Infracore, this is already the fourth time that the company has asked its employees to voluntarily resign this year and over 800 workers have been kicked out of their jobs, but Doosan continues to focus only on reducing its workforce.
In particular, the last three voluntary retirement requests targeted managers or higher ranking employees, but this time, they are aiming at mostly assistant managers and junior employees who have been with the company less than five years, triggering controversy. We don't know how much the company plans to save on costs by laying off young employees in their twenties and thirties, but the nine affiliates of the Doosan Group had 8.9 trillion won in internal reserves as of the end of the first quarter this year. In addition, Park Yong-man, chairman of the Doosan Group, drove new employees, who overcame challenges to join the company dreaming the job of a lifetime, into the pain of unemployment while appointing his 36-year-old eldest son as executive director of the group's duty free business this year. This clearly shows the double-faced nature of the chaebol, speaking of resolving the youth unemployment problem, while thoroughly ignoring their social responsibility.
In this situation, it is questionable as to how much hope the government's labor reforms, which expands temporary and agent workers while allowing easier layoffs, will give our youth. Allowing businesses the freedom for more layoffs and to expand irregular workers will only let businesses replace regular workers with irregular workers and make the young people, who barely managed to find a regular job, suffer job insecurity. We urgently need to reform the chaebol to prevent businesses from easily shifting the responsibility of business crises on to the workers especially in times of economic difficulties. Labor reforms allowing easier layoffs is not the answer.
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