South Korea Vows Continued Support For Homeplus Workers, Businesses

According to Yonhap, South Korea's finance ministry said Friday it will keep supporting workers and businesses hit by Homeplus Co.'s financial troubles. The Ministry of Economy and Finance held a task force meeting to review follow-up measures, including a consultation channel for workers run by the labor ministry. The labor ministry has provided consultation services in 1,935 cases as of Thursday and has been guiding affected workers on available government aid. The government earlier said it would provide up to 21 million won (US$14,300) to each employee with unpaid wages and offer low-interest loans of up to 10 million won at 1.5%. South Korea has so far extended 41 billion won through the low-interest loan program in 8,934 cases as of the previous day. Homeplus entered court-led rehabilitation proceedings in March last year amid an industrywide slump in discount retailing. A local court ended the proceedings in early July after the retailer failed to secure at least 200 billion won for restructuring, but it resumed the process earlier this week after Meritz Financial Group, Homeplus' largest creditor, agreed to provide financing last week.