Hyundai, Union Reach Accord

Hyundai Motor Co. today reached a breakthrough agreement on layoffs with its union, ending a monthlong occupation of South Korea’s largest car plant.

The agreement, reached at dawn after four days of almost nonstop talks brokered by government officials, averted a potentially bloody confrontation with workers barricaded in the factory in Ulsan.

Hyundai’s management agreed to reduce the number of workers to be laid off to 277 from 460. Hundreds of other workers would be put on unpaid leave for a year and a half, with six months of job retraining. Management had proposed the leave without training and the union had demanded one year with six months of training.

Striking workers have occupied the Ulsan factory since July 20 in protest against Hyundai’s decision to cut jobs--the first mass layoffs since a law was passed in February making it easier for companies to fire workers. Allowing companies to lay off workers en masse was one of the core conditions of last year’s $58.35-billion bailout package led by the International Monetary Fund.

The Labor Ministry has said the Hyundai work stoppages cost the company and its contractors about $1.2 billion in lost production and badly needed exports.