Unwavering and consistent policies are necessary to help the country's conglomerates further improve their ownership structure and overhaul unfair business practices, a senior government official has said."There are still many things to be done to improve their ownership structure, although we have already created lots of systems," Shin Bong-sam, the chief of the business group bureau at the Fair Trade Commission, said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency last week. (Yonhap)"Their practices h

Starbucks Korea is testing out the use of paper straws at some 100 stores across Seoul, Busan and Jeju, the company said Monday. The two-month-long trial is part of the global coffeehouse chain’s plan to phase out plastic straws and reduce the negative impact on the environment.  (Yonhap)After gathering consumer feedback through the test run, paper straws will be introduced at all its stores in November, the company said. For the first two weeks starting from Monday, Starbucks Korea will provide

CJ Logistics, a parcel delivery business unit of CJ Group, said Sunday that it will expand delivery services for the upcoming Chuseok holiday. CJ Logistics staff sort parcels. (CJ Logistics)Starting Monday, the company will begin a five-week special holiday delivery service period and operate emergency teams at its headquarters, it said. The three-day holiday takes place from Sept. 23-25. As part of such efforts, the company will expand its workforce, keep track of parcel volume and enhance auto

Reflecting the sluggish domestic economy, the number of companies that plan to pay out bonuses for Chuseok decreased slightly from last year, data showed Sunday.According to a survey conducted by the Korea Employers Federation on 527 companies, 73.2 percent of the companies with more than 300 employees and 69.4 percent of the companies with less than 300 employees said they would give bonuses in the upcoming holiday season. This marked an overall average of 70.2 percent, down 1.9 percentage poin

In the global market, gold has mostly been viewed from a monetary policy perspective as its value is generally in inverse proportion to the interest rate trend, offering higher alternative values when other investments are relatively bearish.But gold and other precious metals are increasingly operating like industrial commodities, due to their diversifying product relevance, according to an executive official of a German-based global technology group specializing in precious metals management. “

Mobile carriers aim to move forward 5G launch to December at the earliest

On the Bar is a regular column written by attorneys at Yoon & Yang LLC on various laws and regulations that affect running a business in Korea. The content provided here is general legal information. -- Ed.The Labor Standards Act uses the concept of “ordinary wages” as an instrument to compute allowances for overtime work and work on holidays, among other things.Although the act does not explicitly define ordinary wages, since 1988 the Ministry of Employment and Labor has interpreted the term to

Steel industry protest as price decisions began under government arbitration

LG Chem, the chemicals and biopharma business unit of South Korea’s fourth-largest conglomerate LG Group, said Sunday that its management executives including Vice Chairman and CEO Park Jin-soo visited Los Angeles to recruit talent from around the globe. LG Chem Vice Chairman and CEO Park Jin-soo talks with participants of the company’s recruiting event in Los Angeles. (LG Chem)Every year since taking office in 2012, Park has participated in the company’s global recruiting event, which takes pla

Samsung Electronics Co. has launched its sixth artificial intelligence research center, located in New York, which will focus on robotics research, the company said Sunday. The tech giant is seeking to strengthen its AI capabilities and has opened research institutes in South Korea, Britain, Canada, Russia and Silicon Valley of the United States. (Yonhap)The new AI Center, which opened Friday, is led by Daniel D. Lee, a leading AI and robotics scientist who joined the company in June. H. Sebasti

Elliott Advisors, the Hong Kong arm of Elliott Management, on Friday afternoon released letters it had sent a month earlier to directors of Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors. The recent move is a response to news reports full of speculation that the US hedge fund leaked excerpts of its letters to the media.“Because portions of these letters were selectively provided to the press and others, Elliott has decided to make the full contents of the letters publicly available in the i

Hyundai Motor Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun vowed on Friday to transform the automotive group in response to changes in the auto industry so that it can take the lead in India’s smart mobility revolution.Speaking in New Delhi at the first Global Mobility Summit, called MOVE and organized by the Indian government, Chung detailed the three-point strategy that Hyundai would pursue in order to reach its goal in the world’s fourth-largest electric vehicle market, where it now ranks No. 2 in sales after

South Korea’s pharmaceutical export volume for 2017 soared 30 percent to reach $4.07 billion, riding on strong sales of biologic drug products, including biosimilars and botulinum toxin drugs, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Friday.　Exports of biologic drugs in 2017 stood at $1.37 billion, up 28.6 percent on-year, and accounted for 33.6 percent of the country’s total pharmaceutical exports.Biologic drugs are made with living cells using recombinant DNA technology. They differ from chem

Carmaker might have to compromise with Elliott this time, local expert suggests

Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Kim Dong-yeon said Friday that the government would support companies developing technologies to realize a hydrogen economy.In a meeting with local developers of hydrogen technology, Kim said the government would step up efforts to build hydrogen production facilities and develop related technologies such as hydrogen storage and transport. Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Kim Dong-yeon (Yonhap)On a pending bill on the hydrogen economy, Kim sai