Seoul bus union calls off strike after agreeing to 3.2% wage increase for 2026

SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Yonhap) -- The union representing Seoul city bus workers called off a strike Wednesday after reaching a last-minute deal with management to increase wages by 3.2 percent.

The union and management held marathon talks for nearly 12 hours at the regional labor relations commission and agreed at 1:50 a.m. to the 3.2 percent increase for 2026, which is 0.3 percentage point higher than the 2.9 percent increase last year.

With the agreement, the union withdrew plans to launch a general strike starting with the first buses at 4 a.m. Wednesday. All bus routes were running normally in the morning.

A key sticking point in the negotiations had been how to calculate the hourly wage rate after including regular bonuses in ordinary wages.

No agreement was reached on the issue, however, and the two sides agreed to postpone a decision on the calculation method until after the Supreme Court delivers a ruling on a related case at the end of the year.

The union has called for calculating ordinary wages based on 176 monthly work hours and raising wages by 7.85 percent. However, bus companies and the Seoul city government have rejected the demand, saying the proposed calculation would effectively result in a wage increase of approximately 16 percent.

City buses in Seoul and other big cities nationwide are operated under a semi-public management system, in which bus companies run the services while the municipal government covers their losses.

The Seoul city government estimates that a 1 percent wage increase would add about 14 billion won (US$10.3 million) in annual costs and that accepting all of the union's demands could double the city's annual bus system deficit to about 1 trillion won.