Two days after the Jeju Air flight disaster...Aekyung affiliates hold year-end events and 'eye fat'

ⓒYonhap News Agency

The shock and sadness of the Jeju Air plane disaster have sparked controversy as it was confirmed that an affiliate of Jeju Air's parent company, Aekyung Group, held an end-of-year event from the 29th to the 4th.

According to Yonhap News, a "town hall meeting" (quarterly monthly meeting) event was held at 3 p.m. on the 31st of last month at the banquet hall on the second floor of Novotel Ambassador Suwon, a four-star hotel in Suwon Station, Paldal-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do, with 30 to 40 Novotel employees gathered.

Novotel is a hotel operated by AK Plaza, one of Aekyung Group's listed companies, entrusted to Accor, a hotel chain, and opened at Suwon Station on December 18, 2014.

In fact, Novotel, owned by AK Plaza, is no different from Jeju Air, another listed company of Aekyung Group, and a family company.

The event, which is held every three months, was held in the order of introduction to new employees, rewards for excellent employees and long-term employees, birthday events, lucky draws, and rice cake cutting.

If you look at the video filmed at the time, people smile and look at the box when the general manager shakes it after the start of the prize lottery event, and applaud when the winner is called. In addition, whenever the ranking goes up, the product rating rises, and the cheers get louder.At the end of the

event, the general manager was also seen saying, "We are sorry for you because of Jeju Air and these parts," and then saying, "We have decided to pay the performance pay."

"It is true that the event was held, but it was only a simple monthly meeting by awarding long-term employees with a simple refreshment, and it was not a year-end event," an AK Holdings official said. "It is customary for the hotel industry to distribute accommodation tickets (such as other hotels) to employees at the end of the year, but we chose it because we could not distribute them to all employees."

"After the accident, Aekyung Group spread a notice to all affiliates that it would cancel all events, including the closing ceremony and the opening ceremony, but it seems that the personnel, education, and administrative affairs of the hotel have not been properly controlled because the consignment company is doing it," he said. "I admit that there are parts that I did not pay attention to carefully." We will train all employees to be alert in the future, he added.

Reporter Park Sun-young of Digital News Team