"Unified Support for 'Essential Workers Protection Act' in Regular National Assembly Session... Resolving Stakeholder Issues Remains a Challenge"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The ruling party, government, and Blue House agreed on the 12th to allocate a budget of 1.8 trillion won next year to protect essential workers such as delivery workers and care workers, and to pass related laws within the regular National Assembly session. However, due to intertwined interests, the process is expected to be challenging.

The Democratic Party, the Blue House, and the government held a meeting at the National Assembly on the morning of the same day and announced that they would invest 1.8 trillion won next year to improve the working environment and treatment of essential workers. Essential workers refer to those who provide face-to-face services such as healthcare, medical, care workers, delivery, and courier workers to maintain the life, safety, and social functions of the public.

This year, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to protect essential workers. Most of them do not benefit from institutional safety nets and benefits designed for general workers, such as employment and industrial accident insurance, the 52-hour workweek system, and minimum wage.

In July, the volume of parcels reached 2.92 million, a 20% increase compared to the same month last year, and ten delivery workers have died this year alone. Additionally, due to the surge in food delivery, the number of motorcycle fatalities from January to June this year increased by 13.7% compared to the same period last year. The issue of death from overwork caused by long hours and high-intensity labor among essential workers has become a social concern.

Accordingly, the ruling party, government, and Blue House announced that they would pass the "Living Logistics Service Industry Development Act," which was primarily proposed by Democratic Party lawmaker Park Hong-geun, within this regular National Assembly session. The bill introduces a registration system for parcel delivery service businesses, allowing companies that meet certain requirements and qualifications to operate, and aims to establish stable contracts between business operators and workers.

The government also aims to pass the "Domestic Worker Employment Improvement Act," which it proposed to create jobs in the domestic service market and stabilize workers' employment, during the regular National Assembly session. Until now, most domestic services have been conducted unofficially through verbal agreements between users and workers. This bill aims to bring the domestic service market into the formal sector, improve service quality, and enhance working conditions.

The government has continuously pushed for legislation on domestic workers since the 19th National Assembly but has failed to conduct in-depth deliberations. The bill requires companies certified by the government as domestic service providers to enter into written contracts with domestic workers specifying wages, working hours, and other working conditions, and to provide paid holidays and annual leave in accordance with the Labor Standards Act.

Other pending issues include easing exclusivity criteria to increase industrial accident insurance enrollment rates and establishing an income information system to promote a nationwide employment insurance system.

The government is working on countermeasures through the "Essential Workers Task Force," launched last month. In the afternoon of the same day, it plans to first announce measures to prevent overwork among delivery workers. There is keen interest in how the labor sector will respond to the government's plans. A representative from the Federation of Korean Trade Unions stated, "The labor sector, which directly represents the essential workers, is excluded from the procedure to prepare protection measures," and demanded labor participation to represent the interests of essential workers.

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