Seoul bus union warns of full strike from first buses on Sept. 16

Seoul’s city bus union has set a strike deadline after nine rounds of wage and collective bargaining talks failed to produce an agreement. The union says buses across the capital could stop running from the first services on Sept. 16 if mediation does not succeed.

The Seoul Bus Labor Union made the decision at a meeting of branch leaders on Sept. 3. It applied for labor-dispute mediation with the Seoul Regional Labor Relations Commission on Aug. 31. The commission has scheduled its first mediation session for Sept. 9, a union strike vote for Sept. 11, and a second mediation session for Sept. 15.

Regular route passenger transport is classified as a public-interest service. Under the procedure described by the union, workers can begin industrial action if the 15-day mediation period ends without an agreement and other requirements, including a membership vote, are met.

The central dispute involves the standard monthly hours used to calculate ordinary wages. In April, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that used 176 hours as the monthly standard in a case brought by Dong-A Transport workers against their company. Because the hourly ordinary wage is calculated by dividing monthly ordinary wages by the standard hours, a shorter calculation period produces a higher hourly rate.

The union wants Seoul bus companies to use 176 hours and pay wages it says were withheld. It says management instead proposed a wage freeze for 2026, abolishing bonuses and holiday allowances, applying 209 hours retroactively from February 2025, and reclaiming wages depending on the results of future lawsuits.

The union argues that other regions with publicly managed bus systems reflected the Supreme Court ruling in last year’s wage negotiations and later agreed to wage increases of around 5 percent for this year. It says Seoul bus workers are being offered less favorable conditions.

The union has also petitioned the Labor Ministry for special inspections into alleged legal violations at individual companies. In ongoing civil litigation, it plans to seek unpaid wages and delay interest, as well as damages of up to three times the principal amount. Seoul’s bus workers previously staged a two-day full strike beginning Jan. 13 over the same ordinary-wage dispute, the longest strike in the city’s bus system’s history.