Hyundai Motor Company's management and its labor union have reached a preliminary wage agreement on Tuesday, following a series of strikes that disrupted production. According to a company statement, the two sides came to a consensus during the 17th round of negotiations, agreeing to raise monthly basic wages by 100,000 Korean won (approximately $72.20), disburse performance bonuses exceeding 400% of monthly pay, and provide an additional 12.5 million Korean won.

The parties also agreed to extend the retirement age from the current 60 to 65, provided that relevant laws and regulations are amended. If the tentative deal is ratified in a union vote scheduled for August 31, this year's wage negotiations for South Korea's largest automaker will come to a close. This year, Hyundai's 400,000-member union conducted a combined 60 hours of strikes, leading to approximately 120 hours of production disruption across two shifts.

The industrial action included a full-day walkout last Friday, marking the first such strike by the union in a decade. Industry sources estimate the strikes have caused cumulative production losses of around 55,200 vehicles and sales losses exceeding 2.3 trillion Korean won. Hyundai stated that both management and the union recognize that adopting advanced technologies, including physical artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, is critical to the company's future competitiveness and survival.

The company noted that both sides have agreed to transparently share information on new projects and their implementation processes while jointly responding to future industry shifts. This agreement comes as Hyundai plans to deploy Atlas, a humanoid robot developed by Boston Dynamics, at its manufacturing plant in Georgia, USA, starting in 2028. The company also intends to gradually expand the use of such robots across other production sites.