South Korean delivery workers allowed rare pause in services to vote in snap election

By Hyunsu Yim

SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korean e-commerce and courier companies agreed to a rare halt of their delivery services on Tuesday to allow busy delivery workers time to cast their ballot in the country's snap presidential election after pressure from unions and activists.

Asia's fourth-largest economy has a highly tuned e-commerce sector and South Koreans typically rely on couriers to deliver everything from fresh food to clothing, often in a matter of hours, with the service normally available throughout the year.

South Korea's biggest e-commerce platform Coupang, agreed to halt express deliveries for the first time since it launched in 2014, joining other local delivery services such as CJ Logistics and Hanjin Logistics.

"Rocket delivery will be paused during the day on June 3," New York-listed Coupang said in a notice on its platform, pausing deliveries between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Most of the tens of thousands of delivery workers in South Korea are considered gig workers or self-employed and do not enjoy the same legal protections as permanent employees.

The job is also notorious for long working hours and a heavy workload, with couriers complaining they have seen few of the benefits from an improvement in labour rights in other sectors.

The agreement to temporarily halt services during the polls, was positively received by some workers.

"I welcome the decision. But on the other hand, it is a little regrettable that night drivers cannot rest," said Cho Shin-hwan, a Coupang courier, who had to work on past elections.

Nearly 8 in 10 eligible voters in South Korea voted in the last presidential election in 2022, a far higher turnout than recent elections held in other democracies such as the United States and Japan.

Presidential election days are designated as a national holiday in South Korea to encourage workers to vote, with polls for the snap election staying open between 6 a.m. (Monday 2100 GMT) and 8 p.m. (1100 GMT) on Tuesday.

"Those affected worked hard to achieve this," said Kim Eun-jung, Deputy Secretary General at the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, a non-governmental body, highlighting how delivery workers were excluded from current labour protection laws.

The June 3 presidential election was called after the Constitutional Court ousted president Yoon Suk Yeol earlier this year for his short-lived imposition of martial law on December 3.

(Reporting by Hyunsu YimEditing by Ed Davies and Michael Perry)