Samsung Heavy Eyes Unpaid Leave as Orders Dry Up

South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries is looking to adopt a compulsory unpaid leave plan for its employees on the back of a drop in orders.

Yonhap News Agency cited a company spokesperson as saying that Samsung Heavy opted for the move amid a deteriorating financial status and called on its workers to agree to the unpaid leave program, meaning they would be required to take a leave without a salary, in order to help the company on its path to survival.

The spokesperson explained that, from November 2017 to June 2018, up to 3,000 office and yard workers alternated taking paid leave. During the period the workers received 70-80 percent of their normal salaries.

The decision was made less than two months after SHI’s compatriot Hyundai Heavy Industries offered an unpaid leave plan to its workers at the South Korean offshore shipyard.

HHI earlier informed that the facility would be temporarily shut down due to a lack of orders. Namely, the offshore shipyard ran out of work by the end of July, when it completed its final order secured in November 2014, and was scheduled to close its doors in August 2018, marking the first time it shuts down since the start of operations in 1983.

World Maritime News Staff