South Korean health workers drop strike plans after agreement

FILE PHOTO: A woman gets a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) test at a coronavirus testing site in Seoul, South Korea, July 15, 2021. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean frontline health workers on Thursday dropped plans to strike after they reached an agreement with the government on their demand for increased staffing and better work conditions during last-ditch negotiations overnight.

The Korean Health and Medical Worker's Union had warned some of its 80,000 members, including nurses, medical engineers, and pharmacists who say they are exhausted from battling waves of COVID-19 outbreaks, would begin striking from Thursday if their demands were not met.