Naver, Kakao IT Unions Oppose Yoon Government's Flexible Working Hours Policy

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] The IT Committee of the Chemical Fiber Food Workers' Union has voiced opposition to the labor hour flexibilization policy being promoted by the Yoon Seok-yeol administration, stating that "the opinions of IT industry workers have not been reflected at all."

The IT Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Committee) announced on the morning of the 13th that it plans to attend a policy response discussion on labor hour flexibilization hosted by Democratic Party lawmaker Sujin Lee to convey the opinions of IT industry workers. The Committee is composed of about 12,000 workers from over 80 IT companies including Naver, Kakao, Nexon, and Smilegate.

The Committee criticized the labor hour flexibilization policy, which expands the maximum weekly working hours limit to one month allowing for concentrated work periods, as a policy that does not reflect workers' opinions at all.

According to a survey conducted by the Committee from the 8th targeting 1,834 IT workers, 90.6% of respondents opposed the government's labor hour flexibilization policy, citing concerns that it could harm their health. Additionally, 97% of respondents said it is better to reduce or maintain the current statutory working hours limit of up to 52 hours.

In response, the Committee stated, "The direction of the labor hour flexibilization policy could lead to long working hours again, repeating all the problems that occurred in the past," and added, "It goes against the opinions of industry workers who emphasize reducing working hours."

At the policy discussion, the Committee also plans to advocate for the abolition of the comprehensive wage system. According to the Committee's survey, 96% of respondents agreed with abolishing the comprehensive wage system for IT and office research positions.

The Committee argued for abolishing the comprehensive wage system, saying, "The IT industry must compete with global companies through creative ideas, and should move towards improving the 'quality' of work done efficiently within the same time rather than increasing the 'quantity' of labor as in the past." They added, "The comprehensive wage system allows for unpaid overtime work, which poses a high risk of always leading to the easy choice of increasing labor quantity."

Furthermore, the Committee plans to voice opinions on ways to enhance the effectiveness of the employee representative system.

The Committee urged, "In workplaces without labor unions, even if there is an employee representative, it is difficult to prevent the system from being changed in ways unfavorable to workers," and called for "specific improvements to the system such as 'direct/secret ballot elections' and 'disclosure of labor-management agreement details and processes' to ensure the system functions as originally intended."

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