Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. plan to hire 1,400 new workers and invest about 360 billion won in facilities this year in order to abolish night shifts and reduce excessive working hours, the labor ministry said Wednesday.

The nation’s largest and second largest carmakers will phase out their current two-shift production system until they will run two day shifts only starting from later this year. They plan to complete the transition by 2013.

The decision came after their workers, along with employees of four other automakers operating in Korea, were caught in October by the Ministry of Labor putting in hours beyond legal limits.

“Hyundai-Kia informed us of its plans to correct the illegal practices and the ministry approved it today,” Labor Minister Lee Chae-pil said Wednesday.

The Korean government has been pushing to reform labor practices in the automotive industry, which revolve around a draconian two-shift production system that divides its workforce into a dayshift and a nightshift. Their weekly working hours averaged 55, about 14 hours longer than the country’s all-industry average.

According to their plans to scrap night shifts, released by the ministry, Hyundai will hire at least 900, while Kia will add 500 new worker. Hyundai will also spend 174 billion won on facilities and Kia some 186 billion won.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)