Labor and management at STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Company submitted a voluntary recovery plan including a massive expansion of unpaid leave along with a letter of comfort to the government. The agreement reached by labor and management meets the creditors' demand for the company to cut 95 billion won in fixed costs and at the same time supports the labor union's declaration against any layoffs. The Korea Development Bank (KDB) will review the details of the plan as well as its viability and make a final decision on whether to apply for court receivership. Thus, the ball has once again been tossed from the labor and management of STX to the largest creditor, the Korea Development Bank.

At 5:55 p.m. on April 10, the labor and management of STX Offshore & Shipbuilding submitted their voluntary recovery plan, which aims to cut labor costs by 75% by increasing unpaid leave, cutting wages and bonuses, and reducing benefits, along with a letter of comfort to KDB. KDB, the largest shareholder and creditor bank, had demanded that the company lay off over 500 manufacturing workers and reduce an additional 15 billion won in fixed costs, and the company took this into consideration and presented its own recovery plan. As a result, the 144 workers, who had applied for voluntary retirement and outsourced positions earlier, will be handled according to their requests, and the remaining 1,100 production workers and office technicians will share the burden by accepting wage cuts.

The union explained the progress of the negotiations with management, which began at 9 a.m. this morning and lasted late into the night. The union explained that the workers would go on a six-month unpaid leave for the next five years in order to minimize the layoffs in manufacturing, and most of the 600 union members agreed to the decision. If the company goes into court receivership, massive layoffs would be inevitable, so union members had no choice but to accept the "lesser evil" agreement reached by labor and management.

On March 8, the Korea Development Bank had released its plans for medium-sized shipyards and demanded massive layoffs, which triggered fierce resistance from labor. Management suggested that if the workers directly employed by the company moved to partner companies, they would guarantee three years of employment along with 80% of their existing wages. The labor union refused the proposal claiming that it was a policy aiming to eliminate the union by turning regular full-time workers into non-regular temporary workers. The conflict died down when management accepted the union's position.

However, there is still the final obstacle뾲he government and creditors. The Korea Development Bank announced that in principle, the company would begin the process of court receivership since the company failed to meet the deadline for submitting its voluntary recovery plan: midnight on April 9. But since it takes more than a couple of weeks to actually apply for court receivership, the bank said that it would review the feasibility of the company's recovery plan in the meantime. The problem is that the KDB demanded that the company lay off over 500, 75%, of the 695 production workers, but the company submitted a completely different plan, making it inevitable for the bank to review the plan from square one. The KDB plans to provide a refund guarantee (RG) as a way to restore management of the company only when it determines that the plan presented by management and labor is reasonable.

In this situation, the government is being cautious. Choi Jong-ku, chairman of the Financial Services Commission met with reporters this day and said, "There was some progress on how many workers to lay off and how much of the wages they would cut to reduce costs." However, he also said, "From what I know, it is not enough for the creditors to accept it." Choi added, "We don't have all day to spend reviewing the plan," implying that the government and creditors will soon make their final decision on court receivership.