Around 44,000 Hyundai workers in Korea are to go on strike for up to six days, as the carmaker faces a set of union demands over pay and working conditions.

The country’s biggest automative union are demanding an 8.4 per cent pay rise, an increase in permanent jobs instead of contract staff, a bonus to reflect the company’s burgeoning profits and an end to the overnight shift at factories.

Workers will walk out for between four and eight hours per day on August 8th, 9th, 10th, 13th, 14th and 17th. Employees at Kia Motors – Hyundai’s affiliate – will also support the strike, which comes at the same time as a parallel dispute at GM Motors Korea.

The Hyundai workforce previously walked out for two days last month, its first strike in four years. Talks between the union and management since then have proved fruitless.

“We can shelve the strike plan any time if the company accepts our demands,” union official Choi Byung-chang told the Financial Times. “We will continue to talk to the company with sincerity, but we don’t expect the company to come up with measures to meet our expectations.”

Hyundai has experienced a surge in profits recently, making $4.4 billion in the second quarter of this year – an increase of 19.5 per cent.