Unionized Nexon staff rally for job security amid company-wide reorganization

Around 600 unionized Nexon employees in South Korea demonstrated this week following project cancellations and general unrest that has been brewing at the company over the last several months.

The Korea IT Times (via Daniel Ahmad on Twitter) reports that hundreds of staff members attended a rally in front of the Nexon Korea office on September 3, calling for management to improve job security at Nexon Korea. Demonstrators say that Nexon's recent failure to find a buyer for the company has led to employees to fear for their livelihoods following several project cancellations and concerns of a larger restructuring.

"Stop making excuses for reorganization. Ensure job security," union members told the publication. "We cannot endure disorganization without countermeasures."

Union leadership says that 100 employees are currently suspended following the cancellation of their projects, with no guarantee they’ll be relocated to other positions in the company, and that staff left in limbo for 3 months are required to leave the company entirely.

"If the project ends or fails, there are interviews. They don't give jobs if workers don't pass the interview. We're here to make a reasonable claim about job security," labor union head Bae Soo-chan told The Korea IT Times. "In other words, if the project ends and the team is disbanded due to poor games, it is not certain whether the team's manpower will be relocated, which is why workers in the game industry suffer from constant job insecurity."

The Korea IT Times notes that the company has shuttered four total projects at its South Korean studios Nexon Red and Thingsoft recently. Nexon founder Kim Jung-ju also reportedly attempted to sell his controlling stake in Nexon's holding firm NXC Corp earlier this year, a pursuit he abandoned in June.

In the west, Nexon closed down at least two of its studios in North America last month, saying in a statement at the time that the closures and resulting layoffs aimed to “[streamline] its Western operation by consolidating mobile and PC/Console” teams.