The entrance of Kakao's Pangyo Agit office building in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, is seen in this October 2022 file photo. Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon

By Park Jae-hyuk

Kakao's recent decision to end its full work-from-home system has prompted a rapid increase in the number of the IT firm's employees who have joined the firm's labor union, according to industry officials, Wednesday.

Earlier this week, the proportion of Kakao employees who have joined the Krew Union, a group of unionized workers of the company and its affiliates, reportedly surpassed 50 percent.

Kakao Games, Kakao Entertainment and Kakao Enterprise, which decided to force their workers to return to the office this year, are also said to have witnessed a sharp rise in the number of workers who joined the union.

The proportion of Kakao employees who joined the union stood at around 10 percent last year.

After last December's announcement about the transition to the so-called "office-first" system ― which will require employees to work at the office in principle, and if remote work is needed, get prior approval from individual managers ― employees have rushed to join the union in an apparent protest against the forced return to the office, which will begin in March this year.

"Our employees are particularly displeased with the lack of conversation with the management about the work system reform," Krew Union leader Seo Seung-wook said. "However, the recent increase in the number of union members is not just attributed to the end of the work-from-home system. There are various other reasons that prompted our employees to join the union."

Seo added that Krew Union will issue a press release next week after collecting more specific data on the number of employees who joined the union and on the reasons they joined up.

Some Kakao employees even raised concerns about the lack of space in their office, the cafeteria and parking spaces, because Kakao's Pangyo Agit office building in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, opened last year based on the fully remote working system, with only a limited number of "hot desks" to be reserved for those needing to use the office.

In response, Kakao plans to enlarge those aforementioned spaces in line with the new work system.

The company said it had clarified to its employees that the fully remote work system would be run on a trial basis until the end of last December. It also emphasized that it had surveyed and interviewed the employees before reforming its work system.

Some critics believe that the complaints from the Kakao employees are unreasonable, given that many other Korean firms have asked their employees to return to office since June last year.

Domestic gaming firms such as Nexon, NCSoft and Netmarble started banning their workers from working remotely as of June. Hancom and SK Telecom also decided to change their policies starting this year. SK Telecom's policy from this week is to allow one day of remote work per week.

"It is difficult for Korean companies to force their employees to remain diligent during remote working, because under the nation's strict labor laws, it is difficult for them to lay off poor performers," said an executive from a local conglomerate.