Bank branch hours to be cut by 30 minutes next April

Korea's bank branches will open 30 minutes later starting in April next year, reducing customer service hours under a tentative labor-management agreement reached Monday. Under the agreement, branches will open at 9:30 a.m., instead of the current 9 a.m., while closing hours will remain unchanged at 4 p.m. The tentative deal between the Korean Financial Industry Union, which represents workers at major commercial and policy banks, and the Korea Financial Industry Employers Association also calls for a 3 percent increase in total wages. The two sides began negotiations in April and reached the tentative deal after about five months of talks. The union said it would call off a planned strike scheduled for Wednesday following the agreement. The deal also includes a flexible work schedule allowing employees to delay their start time by up to one hour per week, with a maximum of 30 minutes per day. It also introduces a system for compensatory leave and changes to employee performance evaluations. It also calls for improvements to the mystery shopping system, which is currently used to assess c