Hynix decides to cut wages amid profit loss

SEOUL, Dec. 7 (Yonhap) -- The union and management at Hynix Semicondutor Co., the world's second-largest computer memory maker, have agreed to cut wages and reduce the number of its management posts to cope with a prolonged market slump weighing down on profitability, the company said Sunday.

The agreement, reached last Thursday at the company's headquarters in Icheon,
south of Seoul, calls for a 30-percent wage cut for the company's chief executive
and 10 to 20 percent reductions for other executives and workers, Hynix said in a
statement.
Hynix logged a 1.65-trillion-won (US$1.09 billion) net loss in the third quarter,
marking its fourth-straight quarterly loss as weak chip prices from a global glut
sank its bottom line. Falling prices have dogged other chipmakers as well.
Management and union of Hynix also decided to accept voluntary retirement for
employees who stayed with the company for more than 10 years.
Hynix expects the measure, which also include cutting down on various fringe
benefit spendings, to boost its business efficiency by 15 percent.
"We've been operating virtually under a contingency mode since October due to the
prolonged market slump and the financial crisis," a company official said.
Hynix began cutting down its NAND flash output by some 30 percent in September to
cope with the company's ailing profitability. The company forecast that a market
rebound in the semiconductor industry would take some time and that it will draw
up future investment plans accordingly.