The appearance of Kakao's Pangyo Agit in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province on the 9th. [Yonhap News] 

Kakao's labor union has entered its first partial strike since the company's inception.

The Kakao branch of the Korean Chemical, Fiber, Food, Industrial Labor Union (Kakao Union) began a partial strike from 10 AM today and it will last until 3 PM.

Since the lunch break is from 12 PM to 1 PM, the partial strike will effectively last for 4 hours.

Kakao Union members are scheduled to march around the Pangyo Agit, the company's Seongnam headquarters, today.

A representative from the Kakao Union stated, "We are currently assessing the number of participants in the strike."

The companies participating in today's partial strike are Kakao Corporation, Kakao Pay, Kakao Enterprise, DK Techin, and XL Games, totaling five entities.

These companies secured the right to strike after collective bargaining negotiations on wages broke down, and mediation was suspended by the Gyeonggi Regional Labor Relations Commission, leading to a successful strike vote.

The background of the conflict between Kakao management and labor is primarily attributed to the performance-based bonus compensation structure.

Kakao Corporation's management and labor have differed on proposals to compensate with bonuses equivalent to 13-14% of last year's operating profit, and whether to include restricted stock units (RSUs) valued at 5 million won as part of performance bonuses.

The union is demanding bonuses equivalent to approximately 10 million won, or 13-14% of operating profit, and advocating for RSUs not to be included in performance bonuses, while the management argues that these demands would place a significant burden on operations.

However, it is anticipated that this strike will not cause significant disruption to the operation of major services such as KakaoTalk and Kakao Pay.

A Kakao representative said, "Most of our service operation tasks are automated, so we anticipate that the impact of this collective action on actual service operations will be limited."

He added, "We plan to establish a real-time response system, including minimizing aspects that could affect services during the collective action period and forming a minimal response team to prepare for emergencies."

The Ministry of Science and ICT had also discussed an emergency response system with Kakao in preparation for today's strike.