제 30 호 Corporation workers who chose salary instead
The Fall of Homeplus
Kicker: LIFE
Corporation workers who chose salary instead
: The Fall of Homeplus
By Leesoi, Reporter
(Photo by Gemini)
Homeplus, one of Korea’s major supermarket chains, is once again drawing public attention due to its ongoing financial crisis. The company is facing multiple issues, including delayed wage payments to employees. The company’s headquarters announced that May salaries may also be delayed, following the failure to pay wages that were originally due in April. In addition, it was decided to temporarily suspend the operation of 37 stores, or 35% of all stores, due to operational burdens, resulting in a significant reduction in the number of stores nationwide to 67. Homeplus, which is in a difficult situation, is currently doing its best to save the company, but it is difficult to maintain the 67 stores currently in operation because it requires a huge amount of money to recover and operate normally, and it earnestly asked Meritz Financial, its largest creditor, for a rescue fund through loans.
Workers Offer to Sacrifice Salaries
At the time, the general union, one of the two major labor unions of Homeplus, urged them to put their salaries into normalizing Homeplus operations, saying, "We will give up our salary." According to the industry on the 1st of may, the General Union of Homeplus made the decision at the 30th regular delegate meeting held the day before, and said, "We strongly welcome the court's decision to extend the two-month extension of the Homeplus rehabilitation process." Workers desperate appeals quickly spread through local media interviews and news reports. The workers in the interview said, "With the desperate feeling that this extension is the last golden time that will determine whether Homeplus will survive or not, we will normalize operations even by giving up the salaries of employees," and "We urge all the funds to be invested in normalizing operations and supplying products." The reason for this big decision was, "For our workers, Our salaries represent the results of our hard work and sacrifice, but we know that if the company collapses now, it doesn't mean anything," he said, adding, "As workers give up their wages, the management and loan companies should also put down their vested interests and focus all their efforts on normalizing the sales site and the customers come back."
Measures for Corporate Rehabilitation
In a statement, Homeplus revealed the process of negotiating loans to raise funds for corporate rehabilitation and said it is currently seeking emergency loans worth 100 billion won. The funds should be used to clear up the situation in two to three months and stabilize the company, so the government, shareholders, and companies have raised several questions about how to use these enormous assets in a few months and how to pay them back, but Homeplus announced a detailed plan to pay them as soon as the process is over because the funds can be raised through the sale of Homeplus Express, a Home plus supermarket. Although the process within Homeplus is steadily progressing, it is not clear whether Meritz Company is willing to pay a large amount of money for Homeplus, since liquidation may appear more profitable than continuing normal operations, and the fact that the actual period of use of about a month is very short, which is a major problem, so various variables are expected to play a role.
Meritz's company says it needs a clear guarantee in consideration of the breach of trust problem. If Meritz fails to normalize the company within two months even if it does not provide money or receives support, the company will stop the rehabilitation process and go through bankruptcy and liquidation procedures. It is a negative prospect that the damage to workers who give up their salaries and work hard for companies and families, local commercial districts, and store owners will continue to increase. In order to prevent this, Homeplus should make all-out efforts to persuade shareholders with a firm guarantee that they will surely implement the plan they proposed to Meritz.
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