S-Oil CEO Hussain A. Al-Qahtani.

S-Oil introduced a pilot program to change work schedule to a four-team, two-shift paradigm, starting on March 2, causing the riffle effects in the Korean petrochemical industry.

Labor and management of S-Oil as well as the Koran petrochemical industry have watched closely an experiment of changing the conventional four-team, three-shift paradigm, which has been in place for about 40 years.

All departments of the refinery company have been put into practice the new four-team three-shift paradigm since March 2.

A pilot program to introduce the new work schedule system had been already conducted to 17 departments for the past six months, and it has been expanded to cover all department of the refinery company recently.

S-Oil plans to determine whether to introduce the new work system after making a comprehensive review into it after the following six-month pilot program period.

The execution of the pilot program follows S-Oil executives and staff members’ active demand. Under the new system, S-Oil employees are required to work 12 hours on a working day, four hours more than under the previous system instead of having four more hours’ free time on a non-working day.

The mandatory 52-hour workweek regulation has promoted employees to demand a better balance of work and home life, and the new work system has an effect of working longer on a working day and a “double free time” on a non-working day, S-Oil officials said.

S-Oil staff and management are taking a different attitude. Currently, there is not a single company in the refinery and chemical industry who has introduced a four-tem, two-shift work system.

S-Oil staff members maintain that the new work system can achieve a better balance of work and home life. Under the pilot program, S-Oil employees are allowed to have Friday and Saturday on succession off once monthly.

The new system has a strength of fewer commuting frequency, thus reducing non-essential time.

A view of S-Oil’s plant in Onsan, Ulsan. (Photos: S-Oil)

S-Oil Donates 500 Million won in Aid for COVID-19 Victims

S-Oil contributed 500 million won in a donation to aid the victims of COVID-19 to the Hope Bridge Association of National Disaster Relief on March 5.

S-Oil CEO Hussain A. Al-Qahtani said, “All people are spending hard times due to the novel coronavirus, and S-Oil wants to share the sufferings of the situation and joint efforts to overcome it.”

He also expressed hope this tiny one gathered with S-Oil executives and staff members’ heart will be even a little help to those who experience difficulties.

CEO Al-Qahtani has taken extraordinary in-house steps to ease the misgivings on the spread of the virus and secure safety. S-Oil has implemented flexible work reporting system, work at home, and leaves for helping family members on top of supplying masks and hand disinfection agents.

He sent urgent goods such as masks and hand disinfection agents to S-Oil employes in the Daegu and Gyeongsangbuk-do area, hit hardest by the spread of the epidemic.

A CEO’s letter, enveloped along with the supplies, reads “Cheer Up Daegu & Gyeongbuk. Cheer Up Korea.” The message conveys the foreign CEO’s sincere wishes of joining forces with Korean society to overcome the unprecedented national disaster.