Welfare points paid to employees at Kangwon Land's head office reach 1.7 million won ($1,200) a year, while workers at its subsidiaries receive only 550,000 won or nothing at all. Because many subsidiary employees live in former coal-mining areas, critics say the casino operator should improve their conditions in line with the purpose for which it was established.
Data submitted by Kangwon Land to Rep. Koo Ja-keun of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee, showed on the 23rd that welfare points allocated to the company's 3,772 employees averaged 1.7 million won per person last year. Over the same period, Kangwon Land spent a combined 6.26512 billion won on its flexible benefits program, including group insurance.
Kangwon Land runs the flexible benefits program under its employee welfare rules. The points, calculated at one won per point, can be spent at the discretion of employees through an online benefits mall or a benefits card. Under the company's payment criteria, employees receive up to 1.7 million won a year, consisting of 1.55 million won in basic points and 150,000 won in service-length points.
By contrast, welfare points paid to employees of subsidiary Hi One Partners came to just 550,000 won a year, less than one-third of the 1.7 million won allocated to head-office staff. Another subsidiary, Hi One Choo Choo Park, had no record of paying welfare points at all.
Hi One Partners was set up by Kangwon Land in 2019 to convert workers at former contractors into permanent employees. It handles cleaning, security and facility maintenance. An agreement signed in 2020 at the time of the conversion specified that part of Kangwon Land's in-house employee welfare fund would be used to pay an average of 550,000 won a year per converted worker.
The problem is that the level of welfare points has not changed in the six years since the conversion. Demands for an increase were raised at joint labor-management councils of the parent company and its subsidiaries in June and December 2023, but Kangwon Land said at the time that the program was one whose payment schedule and amounts had been fixed for five years under the Framework Act on Labor Welfare, and that it would maintain the existing amount.
At a joint labor-management council in June this year, an additional agenda item was submitted to raise the amount from 550,000 won to 1.1 million won. The head office responded that because the funding comes from Kangwon Land's in-house employee welfare fund, the amount could not be raised unilaterally by the joint council and that the matter required negotiations between labor and management at the parent company.
Critics say the gap in benefits between head-office and subsidiary employees is becoming entrenched as the terms agreed at the time of the conversion remain in place for an extended period. They argue that conditions should be improved in keeping with Kangwon Land's founding purpose, particularly because many subsidiary employees live in former coal-mining areas. Of Hi One Partners' 448 employees, 324, or 72.3%, live in former coal-mining areas including Jeongseon, Taebaek, Yeongwol and Samcheok. At Hi One Choo Choo Park, 13 of 15 employees, or 86.7%, are residents of such areas.
"Just because 550,000 won was agreed on at the time of the conversion does not mean that agreement should be a lifelong shackle," Koo said. "Kangwon Land was established for the public purpose of revitalizing the economy of the former coal-mining region and improving residents' livelihoods, so it must come up with substantive measures to improve their conditions."