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| Thousands of Hyundai cars are parked at the carmaker's Ulsan plant. Hyundai and Kia Motors ordered its employees to return back to work as COVID-19 has incurred major setbacks in global production. Yonhap |
By Kim Hyun-bin, Kim Yoo-chul
Some conglomerates are withdrawing work-from-home policies as they transition towards longer-term "emergency management" strategies to deal with the unpredictability of the global market due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Hyundai, Samsung, LG, and SK Group all had been asking employees to work from home and the companies are monitoring the situation based on guidance from health officials. The risk of the infection of even a single employee would result in the temporary closure of an entire facility or workplace.
But as the coronavirus is beginning to assert a greater impact on the global economy, some of the country's leading conglomerates, particularly Hyundai and Samsung, have shifted to a new strategy that is referred to as "emergency management" by its promoters.
On Tuesday, Hyundai Motors Group and its sister group Kia Motors said the automotive group affiliates ordered employees to return back to work despite the growing fears of the spreading coronavirus.
With higher hopes of reducing the possibility of employees' exposure to the contagious and epidemic virus, the automotive brands have recently been adopting "flexible hours" for workers who might otherwise be on the job simultaneously. But the core reason about the decision, according to Hyundai officials, is that the Hyundai Motors Group has no option but to minimize the efforts of the virus on the group's financial sheets after the group shut down its key plants in Europe, the United States and Asia for the fear of the virus.
The company expanded flexible starting hours for employees from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. from the previous 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. It also eliminated mandatory daily work hours, which had been set at 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Hyundai Motor Group, including its sister Kia, planned to sell more than 7 million vehicles this year; however, the spreading virus raised questions as to whether the group could achieve the ambitious sales target.
Samsung Electronics said the company is planning to expand the implementation of local coronavirus taskforce policies to its international businesses and to apply countermeasures to prepare for the "worst case scenario." Its leader vice chairman Lee Jae-yong recently visited Samsung Display's OLED panel-manufacturing plant in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, to encourage workers who've been working at the factory despite the virus.
Other companies, however, are still having employees work from home. SK Group, whose core affiliates are SK Telecom and SK Innovation, said the group will extend its work-from-home policy to most affiliates through the end of the month. As a separate move, SK chairman Chey Tae-won recently asked senior executives of the group affiliates to assess the situation as the group was expecting its core businesses may not return to normal over the next several months due to global supply chain disruptions and weak consumer demand for finished goods caused by the virus.
According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the country has reported close to 9,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 120 deaths as of March 24.
