The chief of South Korea's automobile industry association called for local carmakers Tuesday to rein in salary growth, saying that the burden from labor costs has been increasing faster than other global rivals.

Speaking at a seminar held by the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association, Chairman Kim Yong-geun also demanded that labor unions cooperate to prevent the wage issue from hurting overall competitiveness.

KAMA represents the interests of five major automakers operating in South Korea.

"Companies have to do their best to maintain production and employment at home, while labor unions have to cooperate not to cause the total amount of pay to serve as a burden on competitiveness," Kim said.

He went on to say that wage growth rate in South Korea should be maintained at the minimum level, demanding its growth to be restrained to an annual rate of 1 to 2 percent for more than three years until the wage burden becomes similar to those of other rival companies.

Citing the reason for the restriction, Kim said that the local auto industry has seen the ratio of its spending on wages rise to 12.4 percent of its total sales, a level that is higher than the 10.6 percent for Volkswagen of Germany.

He also demanded toughening the current rules that allow a labor action if more than half of the unionized workers vote yes, while claiming that personnel affairs, investment and other business-related decisions such as acquisitions should be excluded from collective bargaining.

His demand for reining in wage growth along with other tough actions come as the labor union of Hyundai Motor Co., the largest automaker, plans to hold a yes-or-no vote on a strike this week after it failed to hammer out a deal over working conditions with the management.

Some experts who attended the seminar cited shaky labor-management relations as the "weakest point" and a major factor that hurts competitiveness in the auto industry.

They also underlined the importance of building "cooperative" ties between the two parties to secure corporate competitiveness.

"Labor and management have to move out of misunderstanding and mistrust against each other," said Kwon Hyuk, a professor at the law school of Pusan National University. "Only when that happens, will they be able to think together about how to achieve sustainable growth of their own company." (Yonhap)