Kakao employees protest handling of recent layoffs

Unionized workers of Kakao staged a protest on Wednesday in front of the tech company's Pangyo headquarters in Gyeonggi, demanding executives take responsibility for recent layoffs conducted by struggling Kakao affiliates.

Over 200 unionized workers gathered in front of Kakao's headquarters in Pangyo, Gyeonggi, on Wednesday to protest against recent layoffs conducted by Kakao affiliates. [NEWS1]

Unionized workers of Kakao staged a protest on Wednesday in front of the tech company's Pangyo headquarters in Gyeonggi, demanding executives take responsibility for recent layoffs conducted by struggling Kakao affiliates.

Over 200 employees gathered for an hour from 12 p.m. and demanded an official apology from Kakao founder Kim Beom-su and other executives for management failings that led to the layoffs.

Protestors also opposed the board’s decision to appoint former Kakao Enterprise CEO Baek Sang-yeop as an advisor of the Kakao subsidiary after he stepped down from the position in May.

“Kakao’s current crisis is not a temporary financial slump and will repeatedly result in more crises in the future,” said Seo Seung-wook, the leader of Krew Union consisting of unionized workers of Kakao and its affiliates, on Wednesday. “We will send a letter of protest to Kim Beom-su and will continue to stage protests even though we did not receive an answer.

“The company’s custom of welcoming back former executives who failed the company needs to be changed,” Seo said. “There needs to be the establishment of a more meticulous system to censor and monitor executives.”

Kakao Enterprise, a Kakao subsidiary that offers artificial intelligence-based cloud services to companies, has been undergoing a reshuffle since May and since earlier this month has been accepting voluntary resignations from its employees.

Kakao Entertainment also let go of its employees through a redundancy program for employees with more than a decade of work experience.

XL Games, a subsidiary of Kakao games and game publisher behind the hit ArcheAge franchise, is going through a reshuffle and accepting voluntary resignations from employees.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]