40-hour week means no new mobiles on Saturdays

Mobile retail outlets will not be able to activate new mobile phones on Saturdays starting from next month as the government plans to enforce the 40-hour per week work scheme for smaller workplaces.

The country’s three mobile carriers ― SK Telecom, KT Corp. and LG Uplus ― said that electronics systems at the mobile retail outlets will not function on Saturdays beginning July 1.

The move comes as the five-day-week work plan, from the Ministry of Employment and Labor, is expected to be implemented at workplaces with 5-20 employees in the latter half of this year. Most of the mobile retail outlets fall in this category.

This indicates that retail outlets will be allowed to open doors on the weekends and sell the wireless gadgets, but customers will have to wait until Monday to activate their mobile phones.

In response to retail outlets’ complaints that their sales will be hard-hit by the government measure, the mobile carriers said they will enable the store officials to finish the basic process for activation, such as credit checks, so that the gadgets can be activated at the earliest possible time.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)