N. Korean workers in Gaeseong complex to receive 5 percent pay raise

Korea Herald
5/3/2007

South and North Korea on Friday agreed on a 5 percent pay raise for North Korean workers employed by South Korean companies in an industrial complex just north of the border, officials were quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency.

Last month, the North notified South Korea that North Korean workers will refuse to work extra hours or on weekends and holidays starting from August unless they get a 15 percent raise in their basic wages.

In a new deal, North Korean workers working in the Gaeseong industrial complex are to earn about $60.375 in basic pay, including insurance, which accounts for 5 percent of the total.

This is the first time that North Korean workers have received a pay raise since the complex began operations in late 2004, in spite of such demands being made several times.

N. Korean workers in Kaesong complex to receive 5 percent pay raise
Yonhap
8/3/2007

South and North Korea on Friday agreed on a 5 percent pay raise for North Korean workers employed by South Korean companies in an industrial complex just north of the border, officials said.

Last month, the North notified South Korea that North Korean workers will refuse to work extra hours or on weekends and holidays starting from August unless they get a 15 percent raise in their basic wages.

In a new deal, North Korean workers working in the Kaesong industrial complex are to earn about US$60.375 in basic pay, including insurance, which accounts for 5 percent of the total.

This is the first time that North Korean workers have received a pay raise since the complex began operations in late 2004, in spite of such demands being made several times.

Currently, 26 South Korean companies employ about 15,000 North Korean workers in Kaesong, including construction and office workers, at the site developed on a trial basis.

The number of North Korean workers is expected to increase to more than 350,000 when the complex becomes fully operational by 2012. Monthly production in the complex exceeds $10 million.

The industrial complex, the crowning achievement of a landmark summit between the leaders of the two Koreas in 2000, is one of the two major cross-border projects that South Korea has kept afloat in spite of United Nations sanctions on the the North following its nuclear weapon test in October. The two Koreas also run a joint tourism project at the North’s scenic Mount Geumgang.

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