The largest union has been created, representing mainly workers of multinational pharmaceutical companies that had entered Korea. Workers of 16 pharmaceutical companies including 15 multinational and 1 domestic companies started uniting. It is said that the total number of workers in the 16 companies is 2,500. If they make one voice, their influence on the pharmaceutical industry will not be small. The National Pharmaceutical & Bio Labor Union (NPU) under the Federation of Korean Chemical Workers’ Union in the Federation of Korean Trade Unions held an official inauguration ceremony at the hall of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions on July 5 and started full-fledged activities. It is said to be the largest trade union based on multinational pharmaceutical companies. 16 unions forming the NPU include mainly multinational companies such as Novo Nordisk, Bayer, Amgen, Novartis, Viatris, Jansen, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, Alvogen, Opella Healthcare, Merck, Boehringer Ingelheim, AstraZeneca, and GSK, and 1 domestic company, Hyundai Pharmaceutical, adds strength. Mr. Ahn Deok-hwan from Novartis Korea serves as the first general secretary. The NPU explained they formed a united front to respond strongly to restructuring. The Korean pharmaceutical industry has been experiencing job instability and substantial decrease in wage income while going through the fourth industrial revolution and Covid-19.
Thus, restructuring is ongoing in the pharmaceutical industry in the name of voluntary severance. The NPU explained that workers felt the need for solidarity against the same problem, which resulted in the formation of the union. Under the circumstances where the employers are pushing restructuring forward through avoiding legal issues under the name of voluntary severance, the new union intends to defend the given job stability and level up the welfare and wage. In addition, the NPU’s next move is to communicate with the National Assembly and the government on the common issues caused by low growth and non-face-to-face business. Mr Ahn Deok-hwan, the first general secretary of the NPU, said, “The pharmaceutical industry shows consistent sales growth despite Covid-19, but major multinational pharmaceutical companies are carrying out restructuring in the name of their workforce reduction,” and claimed “Such restructuring is a contradictory situation that deteriorates the job condition and runs counter to market growth.” Indeed, there are ongoing clashes between labor and management in the workplaces of multinational pharmaceutical companies. The representative companies are Sanofi Aventis and Novo Nordisk. The Sanofi Aventis union recently disclosed the case of 14 employees who were laid off from 2016 to 2021, and raised their voice that the management's Ethics & Business Integrity (EBI) has been transformed into an organization for unfair dismissal.
The union claimed the company had spent hundreds of million won as settlement money and legal cost in the process of settlement after indiscriminate disciplinary dismissals in recent years. The Novo Nordisk union started the whole member struggle on July 7. Following last year, wage negotiations broke down again this year, and the main reasons for off-the-work struggles include the delayed payment of wages due to the disadvantageous change in the work incentive system. The Novo Nordisk union claims that the wage negotiations broke down for two consecutive years from 2021 to 2022, and hundreds of millions of won were in arrears, including delayed payment of wages for disadvantageous incentive changes and non-payment of fuel costs to managers. Novartis Korea is also giving shape to a plan to reduce its workforce. Earlier, Novartis headquarters announced that it would lay off its workforce by up to 8,000 employees worldwide within this year. Currently, Novartis Korea is known to integrate the prescription drug division and the anticancer drug division, and it was confirmed that Mr. Yoo Byung-jae, the head of the prescription drug division, has been appointed as the CEO of the integrated corporation. Controversy over the reduction of workforce surrounding multinational pharmaceutical companies is expected to continue for the time being, as the NPU has declared that it will respond strongly to restructuring.
[WIKI KOREA=Cho Pil Hyun, Staff Reporter]
chop23@wikileaks-kr.org
