"8-Hour Overtime Ban... Risk of Job Loss and Bankruptcy"

KCCI-Han Mu-gyeong Office Forum
8-Hour Additional Overtime System Sunset Last Year
Companies Express Difficulties... "Flexibility Needed"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] "Small businesses are forced to give up work due to restrictions on working hours, and in the worst case, they face the crisis of having to close their businesses."

At the end of last year, when the 8-hour additional extended working hours system ended, small business owners urged the preparation of countermeasures to resolve the working hours system issues.

The Korea Federation of SMEs, together with Assemblyman Han Mu-kyung of the People Power Party, held a press conference and forum on the 9th at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, calling for countermeasures to resolve working hours issues.

At the press conference, representatives of small and venture businesses and small merchants expressed difficulties following the sunset of the 8-hour additional extended working hours system. The 8-hour additional extended working hours system allowed workplaces with fewer than 30 regular employees to permit up to 8 additional hours of extended work per week if agreed upon by labor and management. It was temporarily implemented from July 2021 until the end of December last year.

Small business organizations lamented, "With the disappearance of the 8-hour additional extended working hours system at the end of last year, numerous small businesses are blocked by working hour restrictions, forced to give up work, and in the worst case, face the crisis of having to close their businesses."

They continued, "The National Assembly and government must now recognize the limitations of the 52-hour workweek system that does not fit the field and actively pursue fundamental improvements to the system."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

About 300 people, including Assemblyman Han, Jeong Yun-mo, Executive Vice President of the Korea Federation of SMEs, Minister Lee Young of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and heads of small and medium enterprise and small business organizations, attended the forum on improving the working hours system.

Assemblyman Han emphasized, "Since the Future Labor Time Research Group’s labor market reform tasks submitted to the government include measures to flexibilize working hours, a new working hours operation plan suitable for companies and the field must be prepared."

Vice President Jeong stated, "I hope the government and National Assembly actively engage in fundamental improvements to the working hours system and derive improvement measures suitable for the SME field."

Minister Lee pledged, "We will closely cooperate with the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the National Assembly, and others to establish a flexible and rational working hours system, including expanding the management unit of extended working hours to an annual basis."

On the day, Hwang In-hwan, Vice President of the Korea Federation of SMEs (CEO of Jeongil Hyundai Motor Maintenance Industry), said, "Many SMEs cannot comply with the 52-hour workweek system even if they want to because they cannot find workers," and argued, "A flexible extended working hours system is needed so that both labor and management can work more when necessary."

Jang Taek-han, Manager at Bohara, said, "If income decreases due to reduced working hours, quality of life may actually decline further," and added, "The system should be changed so that labor and management can agree to work more when they want to."

Professor Lee Sang-hee of Korea Polytechnic University, who presented at the forum, pointed out that Korea’s reduction in working hours has been more rapid than in Japan and France, and Professor Lee Seung-gil of Ajou University emphasized that exceptions for rest time should be recognized through collective agreements within the scope that does not harm workers’ health rights.

Meanwhile, the Korea Federation of SMEs plans to deliver the industry’s demands for improvements to the working hours system to the government and National Assembly based on the contents of this forum.

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