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Unionized workers at Homeplus walked off their jobs on Wednesday ahead of a busy holiday season, demanding that MBK Partners, a Seoul-based private equity fund that acquired South Korea's No. 2 discount retail chain, guarantee their job security.
Early this month, MBK Partners sealed a $6.1 billion contract in the nation's largest-ever buyout deal to take over Britain-based retail giant Tesco Plc's Korean unit.
Although MBK earlier promised to respect the current terms of its members' employment, Homeplus' labor union claimed the equity fund has refused to come to the negotiating table.
Some 2,000 workers across the nation started a walkout on Wednesday and 1,500 other employees staged a rally in front of MBK's office in downtown Seoul, the union said.
"We have tried to reach an agreement on the job security and the continued growth of Homeplus before the Chuseok holiday, but the efforts fell through because MBK and the management refused to sit with us," the labor union said.
For retailers, the Chuseok holiday, or Korean Thanksgiving, is one of the busiest times of the year as people flock to grocery stores and buy expensive gift sets for their relatives and friends. It falls on Sunday.
Homeplus said it will mobilize its available employees to minimize customers' inconvenience, claiming that the strike is joined by less than 10 percent of the total employees.
MBK said it has already expressed its willingness to talk with the labor union, but it is premature to start any negotiations because the deal is expected to be completed in late October.
Homeplus employs more than 26,000 people and operates 1,075 outlets in Asia's fourth-largest economy, including 140 hypermarkets and 609 supermarkets as well as 326 convenience stores, according to Tesco. It logged $9.4 trillion won in sales in the 2014 fiscal year that ended on Feb. 28.
Tesco pulled out of the Korean market 16 years after launching the joint venture with Samsung Group. The nation's top conglomerate sold its stake back to Tesco in 2011. (Yonhap)
