Banners opposing the planned bus strike hang on buses parked in Seoul on Sept. 15.NEWS1
Seoul’s bus union and operators entered last-ditch negotiations Tuesday, one day before a threatened citywide strike, as the two sides remain sharply divided over wage calculations.
The Seoul Regional Labor Relations Commission opened a second mediation session at 2 p.m. over the dispute involving the Seoul Bus Union.
The two sides are negotiating over core issues such as how regular bonuses should be reflected in ordinary wages, the number of monthly hours used to calculate ordinary wages and the size of a pay raise.
The union is demanding that back pay be calculated using 176 hours as the monthly divisor is a standard recognized by the Supreme Court in April in a lawsuit involving Dong-A Transportation, while management wants to calculate the pay based on 209 monthly hours.
A lower divisor results in a higher hourly ordinary wage, which benefits workers.
The union is also demanding a 7.85 percent increase in base pay.
“The changes to the calculation would have the effect of raising wages by 16.44 percent [on top of the proposed base pay increase of 7.85 percent],” the management argued. “So the union is effectively demanding a pay raise of about 24 percent."
The union staged Seoul's longest bus strike on record in January, with members walking off the job for two days starting Jan. 13 over a dispute over ordinary wages.
A bus driver wears a headband in support of a potential Seoul bus strike on Sept. 15.YONHAP
“The Dong-A Transportation ruling said allowances should be based on the working hours agreed upon between employers and employees, rather than the hours actually worked,” the city government said. “It did not rule on how many hours should be used to calculate the ordinary hourly wage. The bus union is therefore wrong to claim that the ruling established 176 hours per month as the standard.”
The union and bus operators have held nine rounds of negotiations on pay for 2026 since March but have failed to narrow their differences. The city therefore expects another tug-of-war between the two sides during the second mediation session.
“We will not engage in meaningless all-night-long negotiations,” the union said. “If we cannot reach an agreement by 9 p.m. [on Tuesday], we will launch a full strike starting with the first buses on Wednesday.”
An average of about 3.8 million people use Seoul city buses each day.
A poster in support of increased bus fare hangs on a Seoul bus on Sept. 15.YONHAP
The city held an emergency meeting on Tuesday to prepare for a possible strike as the union and operators remained divided.
At the meeting, chaired by Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, the city decided to activate an emergency transportation plan if negotiations break down.
If the strike goes ahead, Seoul will add 202 subway trips per day and extend the periods of more frequent train service during the morning and evening rush hours by two hours each.
The city will also extend the subway service so that the last trains arrive at their final stations by 2 a.m. the following day.
A poster informs passengers of free shuttle buses for a possible Seoul city bus strike as commuters gather at the Seoul Station bus transfer center in central Seoul on Sept. 15.YONHAP
The city will also deploy up to 1,500 free shuttle buses, more than double the roughly 700 used during the bus strike in January. The city’s 25 districts will operate 1,300 shuttle buses between major transportation hubs and subway stations. Seoul will also deploy about 200 chartered buses on 10 major arterial routes, including Gangnam-daero in southern Seoul and Dobong-ro in northern Seoul.
Shuttle buses that previously operated only within individual districts will also serve major arterial roads to help passengers travel between districts. Information on shuttle routes and operating hours will be available on the city's website, the Seoul Transport Operation & Information Service, the 120 Dasan Call Center, electronic road signs and bus information displays.
Members of the Seoul bus union, right, shake hands with management before labor-dispute mediation in western Seoul on Sept. 15.YONHAP
Seoul and its affiliated public institutions will introduce flexible working arrangements. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education will ask elementary, middle and high schools to adjust school start times. The city will also encourage companies to expand remote and flexible work arrangements through organizations including the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business (KBIZ). Seoul also plans to provide foreign tourists with information on alternative transportation.
“We will work until the last moment to help the bus union and operators reach a reasonable agreement,” Oh said. “We will also thoroughly prepare emergency transportation measures in case a strike goes ahead.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
