The two sides failed to bridge their differences during a first session on May 18, extending the deadline for a resolution, entering the next round Wednesday. Four Kakao affiliates — Kakao Pay, Kakao Enterprise, DKTechin and XLGames — have already secured the legal right to strike after separate mediation efforts collapsed, and strike ballots held at five affiliates were all approved with votes in favor.
The central dispute pits the union's demand for a transparent bonus formula against management's insistence on counting 5 million-won annual grants of restricted stock units (RSUs) as part of performance pay — a classification the union flatly rejects.
The union is demanding a formula that ties bonuses to a fixed share of annual operating profit, modeled on a landmark agreement at SK hynix.
Kakao headquarters has never gone on strike since the company's founding. The prospect of a walkout has already rattled investors: Kakao shares have fallen about 35 percent from levels around 64,000 won at the start of the year, closing at 40,450 won on Wednesday.
The standoff at Kakao is unfolding as labor tensions spread across South Korea's corporate landscape.
Samsung Electronics' union has been seeking 15 percent of chip-division operating profit, while Hyundai Motor's union opened 2026 wage talks demanding 30 percent of net profit — a wave of collective action signaling growing worker assertiveness at the country's most prominent conglomerates.
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