S Korean shipyard workers reach deal to end strike

South Korean contract workers at the country's No.3 shipbuilder agreed on Friday to end their strike after accepting a much smaller wage hike than demanded as well as job guarantees, union officials and subcontractors said.

Since late last month, about 100 sub-contractors pressing for an increase of 30 per cent have occupied the main dock at the shipyard run by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) in the southern city of Geoje.

The shipyard is one of the world's biggest and the strike has led to delivery delays of eight vessels by as much as five weeks, just as the global shipbuilding industry is signalling a rebound.

Orders have come in as European countries rush to ramp up liquefied natural gas (LNG) deliveries to replace Russian gas supplies in the wake of the Ukraine crisis.

Union officials accepted an offer of a 4.5 per cent wage increase and a promise of job guarantees for workers at some subcontracting firms that may be closing, a union official told reporters.

South Korea's labour minister Lee Jung-Sik told a briefing that the agreement sets an important precedent for resolving labour-management disputes, adding that the government hopes that labour-management culture based on laws would be established in the future.