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| Members of a civic group consisting of residents of Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, chant in front of the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Aug. 8, 2022, to call for the relocation of POSCO Holdings headquarters to the southeastern port city. Newsis |
By Park Jae-hyuk
Conflict between POSCO Group and residents of Pohang in North Gyeongsang Province is intensifying once again, since the steelmaking group recently indicated its intention to keep its holding firm's employees in Seoul, even after its planned relocation to the southeastern port city, according to industry officials, Sunday.
Late last month, POSCO Group told local news outlets based in the southeastern region that it will not order POSCO Holdings employees to move to Pohang, although the company is set to fulfill its promise to relocate the holding firm's headquarters by the end of March this year.
The company cited possible setbacks in group-wide investments, management, government relations and public relations.
Even before POSCO Group established its holding firm in January last year, around 2,000 POSCO employees had worked at the POSCO Center building in Seoul.
Among them, some 200 employees who dealt with group-wide affairs were transferred to the holding company, because POSCO Group did not send POSCO employees in Pohang to the group's newly established holding firm in Seoul.
In addition, when POSCO Group signed an agreement in February last year with Pohang's city government and residents there, the talk was of finishing the holding firm's relocation by the end of March. They did not discuss the redeployment of workers in Seoul.
Their agreement was made as Pohang's residents and politicians protested strongly against the group's plan to locate its holding company in Seoul.
In order to fulfill the agreement, POSCO Group said that POSCO Holdings' board of directors will discuss the relocation of its headquarters during its meeting on Feb. 16. According to the group, the holding firm's relocation will be finished in March, once its shareholders vote for the plan during the general meeting on March 17.
POSCO Group also plans to renovate a building on the site of the Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology in Pohang, so as to fulfill its promise to locate its R&D facility's headquarters in the city.
A civic group comprised of Pohang residents, however, urged POSCO Group to send its holding firm's employees to the city, threatening to hold rallies on Feb. 14 in front of the presidential office in Yongsan District and the POSCO Center building in Gangnam District.
The civic group said that around 600 residents will participate in rallies in Seoul that day.
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