Overview
- Union members at Kakao held a four-hour partial strike and rally in Pangyo on Wednesday with the Crew Union reporting about 1,000 headquarters participants and roughly 1,500 across the group, and four affiliates joining the action.
- The union demands a fixed profit-share bonus reported at about 13–15 percent of operating profit and separate restricted stock units worth about 5 million won per worker, which it says would amount to roughly 10 million won each under the proposed formula.
- Kakao said services such as KakaoTalk and Kakao Pay ran normally, that it operated a real-time response system during the walkout, and that management continues negotiations while calling the union's profit-share demand unrealistic.
- The dispute follows recent deals at Samsung Electronics and SK hynix that pushed for fixed profit-linked payouts and highlights a wider clash between worker pay claims and company plans to preserve investment flexibility for AI and other projects.
- The union signaled further action with a planned 'Log-off day' on June 29, a move that could sustain pressure on Kakao's compensation model and influence pay talks across Korea's tech sector.