Seongnam:Unionized workers at Naver Z Corp., the metaverse affiliate of South Korea's Naver Corp., staged a walkout on Wednesday, marking their second collective action this year in protest against the company's decision to freeze wages.

According to Yonhap News Agency, about 70 percent of the union's members, approximately 120 employees, participated in the picket outside the headquarters of their parent company in Seongnam, located south of Seoul. The action was organized by the portal operator's affiliate-wide labor union.

During a live broadcast of the walkout, the union highlighted that a wage freeze across Naver and its affiliates had only happened once before, in 2009, following the global financial crisis. At that time, the company had increased the wages of its executives by 71 percent, thereby shifting the financial burden onto its employees, the union argued.

This recent walkout is the second industrial action from Naver Z this month, following a partial, four-hour strike earlier. It also represents the second instance of industrial action within South Korea's portal service industry this year, after unionized members of Kakao Corp., a messenger app operator, staged multiple walkouts in June.