Korea Employers Federation: "Labor Union Law Amendment Reflecting Only Labor's Position Should Halt Legislative Process"

[Asia Economy Reporter Su-yeon Woo] As the amendment to the Labor Union Act for ratifying the core conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) passed the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee on the 9th, the Korea Employers Federation (KEF), representing the business community, urged the suspension of the legislative process for the amendment.

On this day, KEF stated, "We express serious concerns as the amendment is being pushed through the National Assembly without reflecting any of the business community's requests," and emphasized, "The business community requests that the National Assembly halt further legislative procedures such as submitting this bill to the plenary session and conduct a thorough re-examination at the committee level to create a balanced bill."

KEF opposed the amendment, claiming it is biased toward labor interests without reflecting the business community's position at all. Previously, the business community had requested the legislation of minimum employer countermeasures, including allowing substitute labor, prohibiting workplace occupation, and abolishing direct criminal penalties for unfair labor practices, to ensure balanced development between labor and management.

Additionally, the business community has proposed maintaining the current prohibition on paying salaries to full-time union officials. Considering that the current situation already provides some of the highest levels of salaries for union activities worldwide, removing this regulation could lead to increased demands for additional salary payments from labor, potentially escalating conflicts.

KEF pointed out, "This amendment reflects only the labor side's position even more than the government's proposal, and the business community feels powerless and frustrated by the passage of such a biased bill," adding, "If the amendment is finalized as it passed the committee, Korea's already lowest-ranked adversarial and conflictual labor-management relations in the world will inevitably worsen."

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