75% of Large Corporations Implement Remote and Telecommuting Work... "Urgent Need to Improve the Labor Standards Act"

Survey on Work Patterns and Labor Environment Outlook Post-COVID-19 for Top 500 Domestic Companies by Sales
Flexible Work System Adoption Status: 75% Implemented, 10% Under Review, 15% No Plans
Calls for Labor Standards Act Improvement on Flexible Work in Post-Corona Era Rise (33.7%)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyewon] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 75% of large corporations implemented flexible work systems such as telecommuting and remote work, and half of them plan to continue flexible work arrangements in the post-COVID era. There is an urgent call to improve the Labor Standards Act to allow companies to widely utilize various forms of flexible work systems.

On the 20th, the Korea Economic Research Institute commissioned Research & Research, a polling agency, to survey the top 500 domestic companies by revenue on the "Post-COVID-19 Work Styles and Labor Environment Outlook." The results showed that 3 out of 4 large corporations (75%) newly introduced or expanded flexible work systems in response to COVID-19. Among them, a majority (51.1%) said they plan to continue or expand flexible work systems even after the pandemic subsides. This is 6.6 times higher than the 7.8% of companies that responded they would reduce flexible work systems.

Specifically, the measures included supplementing and expanding existing flexible work systems (45.8%) and newly introducing flexible work systems (29.2%). The proportion of companies currently not using flexible work systems but considering their introduction was 10%. Only 15% of companies stated they had no plans to introduce such systems.

The types of flexible work systems used by large corporations were telecommuting and remote work systems at 26.7%, followed by staggered working hours (19%), flexible working hours system (18.3%), selective working hours system (15.4%), deemed working hours outside the workplace system (8.1%), and part-time working hours system (6.2%).

Among the 10 large corporations that introduced or expanded flexible work systems due to COVID-19, 6 (56.7%) evaluated the implementation of flexible work systems as positive for improving work efficiency and productivity.

Large corporations identified the biggest change COVID-19 would bring to the labor market as diversification of work styles such as untact (contactless) and flexible work systems (39.1%). This was followed by job reductions due to industrial structure digitalization (25.1%), reform of labor laws regulating various work styles (18.4%), and improvement of evaluation and compensation systems due to changes in work styles (13.4%).

Important criteria for evaluation and compensation systems after COVID-19 were individual and group performance and achievements (35.2%), importance and responsibility of assigned tasks (29.6%), improvement of job competency (27.7%), and seniority based on years of service and age (4.4%). This suggests that performance-based pay systems will spread more than the traditional seniority-based pay system.

Large corporations most frequently chose strengthening cooperative labor-management relations (44.6%) as the direction for changes required in labor-management relations in the post-COVID era. This was followed by establishing worker representative systems representing various work styles (26.6%), resolving labor market polarization concentrated in large corporations, regular workers, and unionized sectors (12.2%), and establishing the rule of law order against illegal labor-management acts (4.3%).

Regarding government policy directions to respond to the post-COVID era, improving the Labor Standards Act related to flexible work systems (33.7%) and supporting infrastructure costs for flexible work systems (26.8%) were seen as necessary. For example, there are calls to extend the maximum period for the flexible working hours system from the current maximum of three months and to ease the introduction procedures. The discretionary working hours system currently applies only to six tasks such as research and development, but there are voices advocating for expanding the scope.

Choo Kwang-ho, Director of Economic Policy at the Korea Economic Research Institute, said, "Due to COVID-19, various changes will occur in the domestic labor market, including work styles and evaluation and compensation systems. To respond to these labor environment changes, labor and management should strengthen cooperative relations, and the National Assembly and government should improve related laws and systems, such as extending the unit period for flexible working hours and expanding the scope of discretionary working hours."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.