How Many Full-Time Union Officials Receive Salaries... Economic, Social and Labor Council Begins Fact-Finding Survey

Labor Time Exemption Review Committee to Conduct Survey Soon... Full Deliberation After Completion

Moon Sung-hyun, Chairman of the Economic, Social and Labor Council, delivering a greeting at the launch ceremony and the first plenary meeting of the Working Hours Exemption Deliberation Committee held on the morning of July 6 at the main conference room of the Economic, Social and Labor Council in Jongno-gu, Seoul. (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The Economic and Social Labor Council (ESLC), which is adjusting the limit on working hours exemption (time-off) ? a standard that determines how many paid full-time union officials a labor union can have ? is starting a related field survey.

The ESLC, a social dialogue body under the direct control of the president, announced on the 7th that its Working Hours Exemption Deliberation Committee will begin a field survey related to the working hours exemption limit within this month. The committee formed a survey team last month and has been preparing for the full-scale survey by designing samples and composing questionnaire items. The working hours exemption system is a framework that recognizes union officials’ union activities such as labor-management negotiations, handling worker grievances within the company, and industrial safety as paid time.

Unions can have paid full-time officials within the working hours exemption limit. The larger the union size, the higher the working hours exemption limit, which increases the number of paid full-time officials. The Deliberation Committee is the body that sets the working hours exemption limit, and according to the revised Labor Union Act implemented since July, its authority was transferred from the Ministry of Employment and Labor to the ESLC.

The committee held a plenary meeting simultaneously with the enforcement of the revised Labor Union Act and effectively began adjusting the working hours exemption limit. This is the first adjustment since 2013. The labor sector demands an increase in the working hours exemption limit, citing difficulties in union activities at small and medium-sized workplaces. The management sector, focusing on the possibility of side effects such as deterioration of labor-management relations, holds a negative stance.

Under current regulations, the committee must make a resolution within 60 days upon receiving a request for deliberation on the working hours exemption limit from the ESLC chairman. The ESLC plans to make the deliberation request once the field survey is completed. At present, the prevailing view is that the committee is likely to raise the working hours exemption limit.

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