Carpool Service Clash

[Anchor Lead]

Taxi companies in Korea are warning of a massive rally on December 20 to protest Kakao Corporation's carpool service. Meanwhile, Kakao Mobility have passed on to the government and the ruling party their willingness to postpone their carpool service this afternoon.

[Pkg]

The monthly salary of drivers working for taxi companies is around two million won. That's a legal minimum wage.

[Soundbite] Kim Sung-hwan(Korean Taxi Workers' Union) : "Taxi drivers have nowhere to turn to despite their meager salaries. Although the minimum wage is raised every year, their demands are not reflected at all."

The government has recently announced policies to support the taxi sector. They include abolishing the regulations mandating taxi drivers to return part of their profits to their companies, and have taxi companies pay their drivers fixed monthly wages. The government and the ruling party hope that under the new regulations taxi drivers will be guaranteed a monthly pay of over 2.5 million won. The new regulations also seek to raise compensation provided by local governments to individual taxi drivers for returning their licenses to at least one hundred million won, which will be paid out over a period of ten years in the form of pension. Funds needed to pay the compensation will be secured through added value tax exemptions. If more funds are needed, the government will inject public funds to encourage elderly taxi drivers to retire.