Hanwha Group has become the first of the nation’s top 10 industrial groups to upgrade the employment status for a substantial number of its non-regular workers.

On Sunday, the company said a total of 2,043 individuals of non-regular status would be elevated to regular employee status to receive benefit packages and equal promotion opportunities.

The figure included those who had been hired as contracted workers but were promised to be upgraded to regular worker status after two years. More than half were women.

“Our goal is to improve the working environment for our workers and increase their loyalty for the company by instilling in them a bigger sense of motivation and belonging,” said Chang Il-hyung, chief executive of the group’s management and planning division. “The higher morale, in turn, is expected to lead to better services for our customers.”

Most of those subject to the upgrade were working the service desks at the group’s hotel and resort businesses, as sales clerks at its department stores or a part of the maintenance crew.

The employees, once they pass a final screening process, will start working as regular workers as of March 1, the company said.

The move will slash the ratio of non-regular employees at Hanwha from 17 percent to 10.4, well below the 33.8 percent average of non-regular workers in the local corporate sector tallied by Statistics Korea.

The decision from the conglomerate comes as president-elect Park Geun-hye has been strengthening the drive to crack down on large companies that are unwilling to work for economic democratization.

On Sunday, the Fair Trade Commission, which has been unleashing a series of anti-chaebol regulations, said it will beef up penalties for firms caught in engaging in intra-group trading.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)