6 out of 10 Pending Employment and Labor Bills in the National Assembly Are 'Regulation Strengthening Laws'

[Asia Economy Reporter Su-yeon Woo] Among the 10 employment and labor bills pending in the National Assembly, 6 have been identified as regulatory strengthening bills that increase corporate cost burdens or impose additional obligations. The business community is concerned that if the currently pending labor-related regulatory strengthening bills are ultimately enacted, management burdens could intensify.

According to an analysis of bills pending in the Environment and Labor Committee conducted by the Korea Economic Research Institute on the 23rd, out of 364 employment and labor bills pending in the committee from the opening of the 21st National Assembly until February 10 of this year, 229 bills (62.9%) were regulatory strengthening laws. Regulatory neutral bills accounted for 93 (25.6%), and regulatory easing bills were only 30 (8.2%). The number of regulatory strengthening bills pending was a staggering 7.6 times greater than that of easing bills.

(Data from Korea Economic Research Institute)

When analyzing the regulatory strengthening bills by type, 88 bills (38.4%) increased cost burdens, and 71 bills (31%) imposed additional obligations, together accounting for the majority. Other bills included those expanding the scope of responsibility (8.8%), strengthening penalties (7.4%), and increasing social pressure (7.4%).

Major bills that increase corporate cost burdens include mandatory retirement benefit systems for workers with continuous employment periods of one month or more, reflecting primary contractor insurance rates in case of industrial accidents involving subcontracted workers, guaranteeing leave rights for injuries or illnesses not related to work, and prohibiting claims for damages caused by illegal activities of labor unions.

Bills imposing additional obligations include mandatory disclosure of average wages by gender and employment type, mandatory regular publication of wage gap analysis between men and women, mandatory specification of labor cost calculation standards and detailed items, and expanding the scope of workplace harassment prohibition to include third-party relationships outside the workplace.

Major bills expanding corporate responsibility include recognizing as employers those who have substantial control over workers’ employment relationships even if they are not direct employers, including workplaces with fewer than five regular employees under the Labor Standards Act protection, and requiring transferees to comprehensively succeed the rights and obligations related to labor relations of transferors in business transfers.

Choo Kwang-ho, Director of Economic Policy at the Korea Economic Research Institute, stated, "With the recent enactment and revision of megaton-scale labor laws such as the Labor Union Act allowing unemployed and dismissed workers to join unions, and the Serious Accident Punishment Act, corporate burdens have significantly increased." He expressed concern, saying, "If the regulatory strengthening bills pending in the National Assembly are actually legislated, companies’ management difficulties will be further aggravated."

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