South Korean shipbuilding major Samsung Heavy Industries is considering a compulsory unpaid leave plan for its employees amid the ongoing crisis across the entire shipbuilding sector in South Korea.
The move follows the shipyard executing a paid leave plan with 3,000 employees last November, and now it has called on its workers to accept an unpaid leave program as its financial status worsens.
In March, Samsung Heavy Industries implemented a compulsory vacation plan with employees at its Ningbo yard in China due to a lack of orders.
Another major shipbuilding company in South Korea, Hyundai Heavy Industries, suspended operations at its offshore facility in August, resulting in over 5,000 workers facing being laid off.
Samsung Heavy Industries registered a net loss of KRW142.7bn ($127m) in the second quarter of this year, compared with a net profit of KRW22.7bn in the previous year. The yard has so far received $2.9bn in ship orders for 29 vessels this year.