President Moon Attends Tripartite Agreement Ceremony to Overcome COVID-19

Labor-Management Agreement Ceremony at the Tripartite Commission Without KCTU... Blue House "Forming a Special Committee to Discuss Follow-up Measures"

[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Jeong-min] On the 28th, President Moon Jae-in attended the tripartite agreement signing ceremony held without the participation of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and urged overcoming the ‘Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)’ crisis through social grand compromise.

The Economic, Social and Labor Council (ESLC) held its 8th plenary session at a conference room in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the same day, signing a tripartite agreement to overcome the COVID-19 crisis and discussing future plans. This was President Moon’s first visit to the ESLC.

The tripartite agreement includes the roles of labor and management and government support measures to overcome the economic and employment crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It also contains measures to strengthen the national quarantine system and expand employment and social safety nets in preparation for the ‘post-COVID’ era.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The tripartite representatives’ meeting was launched on May 20 and prepared a consensus statement to overcome the COVID-19 crisis, but the absence of the KCTU put the outcome at risk of falling apart. The ESLC, a statutory social dialogue body, revised and supplemented the agreement at that time to lead the signing of the tripartite agreement.

The Blue House explained, “The provisional agreement of the tripartite representatives’ meeting was submitted as an agenda item to the ESLC plenary session and approved,” adding, “It reflects the determination to faithfully implement the spirit of the social dialogue provisional agreement, which included the participation of the KCTU for the first time in 22 years, within the ESLC.”

Attending the meeting were Moon Sung-hyun, chairman of the ESLC; Kim Dong-myeong, chairman of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions; Sohn Kyung-shik, chairman of the Korea Employers Federation; Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance; Kim Yoon-ja, professor emeritus of international economics at Hanshin University; and all 15 members from labor, management, government, and public interest representatives.

President Moon encouraged them and urged the ESLC to play a central role in social dialogue, lending his support. He especially conveyed that the government would respect and reflect in policy the matters discussed and agreed upon at the ESLC to the greatest extent possible.

A Blue House official said, “The ESLC participants plan to form a special committee as soon as possible to discuss the implementation of the agreement and subsequent measures to ensure that the agreed contents are promptly carried out.”

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