Seoul bus union threatens strike from Sept. 16 if wage mediation fails

Seoul’s city bus union has threatened to launch a full strike from the first buses on Sept. 16 if mediation with operators fails, reviving a wage dispute that led to a brief walkout earlier this year.

The Seoul Bus Labor Union said it had asked the Seoul Regional Labor Relations Commission to mediate after wage talks with the Seoul Bus Transport Business Association broke down. If the 15-day mediation period ends without agreement, the union will be legally able to strike.

The dispute centers on how recent court rulings should be reflected in drivers’ pay.

A 2024 Supreme Court ruling broadened the definition of ordinary wages, a benchmark used to calculate overtime and other statutory payments, by allowing more regular bonuses to be included.

For Seoul bus drivers, a separate wage lawsuit involving Dong-A Transportation has become especially important. In that case, a lower court used 176 hours as the monthly basis for converting ordinary wages into an hourly rate.

The union wants the same 176-hour standard applied across the industry, while operators favor 209 hours.

The difference has a direct effect on pay. Dividing the same monthly wage by 176 hours produces a higher hourly rate than dividing it by 209, which in turn raises overtime and other payments tied to ordinary wages.

The union says Seoul and bus operators agreed earlier this year to use the Dong-A case as the basis for settling unpaid wages once the Supreme Court ruled. It now accuses operators of backing away from that understanding and seeking to wait for rulings in other cases.

Operators, meanwhile, have proposed folding regular bonuses into annual salaries, a change they say would raise annual pay by about 10.3 percent. The union has rejected the proposal, arguing that it effectively freezes wages while failing to fully reflect what workers are owed under the new ordinary-wage rules.

If mediation fails, the strike would begin Sept. 16.