Mayor Hong Jun-pyo's Proposal for 'Weekday Closures of Large Supermarkets'

From Next Month, Daegu Large Marts Mandatory Closure Shifts to Weekdays
Mart Union "No Consultation with Workers and Health Concerns"
If Established in Daegu, May Expand Nationwide

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyun-joo] Regulations on large discount stores, introduced to protect local commercial districts, are expected to be eased after 10 years. Will other local governments follow Daegu, the first special/metropolitan city to change the mandatory closure day of large discount stores to a weekday? The labor union is strongly opposing this, citing the health rights of store workers and the survival rights of small business owners.

Since 2012, large discount stores have been subject to mandatory closure twice a month on Sundays and restrictions on early morning operations under the Distribution Industry Development Act. This was intended to protect traditional markets and neighborhood businesses.

However, criticism has been raised that these measures do not actually benefit the protection and revitalization of local commercial districts and only cause inconvenience to residents. With the rapid growth of online shopping and drastic changes in the distribution environment, questions have been raised about whether mandatory holidays for large discount stores directly lead to the revitalization of traditional markets.

A large supermarket store in Seoul that closed on September 8, 2019. / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

In response, Daegu fired the first signal for changing the mandatory closure day of large discount stores to a weekday. On the 13th, Daegu City and its eight districts and counties announced an administrative notice to change the mandatory closure day of large discount stores to Monday, the first among special/metropolitan cities. Once administrative procedures are completed, large discount stores in Daegu will be closed on the second and fourth Mondays starting next month on the 13th. Currently, there are 60 stores subject to mandatory closure in Daegu, including 17 large discount stores and 43 corporate supermarkets (SSMs).

The Mart Industry Labor Union of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Service Federation (Mart Union) has opposed this. At a press conference on the 4th, the Mart Union condemned, "The mayor of Daegu conducted a business agreement that takes away the Sunday of mart workers, who only have two Sundays off per month, without any agreement with the mart workers, gathering only large distribution conglomerates and some local merchant groups."

The point of conflict between Daegu City and the union lies in Article 12 of the current Distribution Industry Development Act. According to this article, the authority to decide the mandatory closure day of large discount stores lies with the heads of basic local governments. Daegu City and its eight districts and counties decided to change the mandatory closure day after going through administrative procedures such as administrative notice and public opinion collection.

However, the union's opposition also stems from the same article. This article specifies that the purpose of restricting business hours and designating mandatory closure days is to ▲establish a sound distribution order ▲protect workers' health rights ▲promote the mutual development of large stores and small and medium distribution businesses. The Mart Union believes that changing the mandatory closure day of large discount stores to a weekday will harm the health rights of mart workers and threaten the survival rights of small business owners.

Additionally, according to the article, the heads of basic local governments must designate mandatory closure days among public holidays, but they can designate non-public holidays as mandatory closure days after reaching an agreement with stakeholders. Accordingly, Daegu City and its eight districts and counties signed an agreement on the 19th of last month to promote the change of mandatory closure days to weekdays after consulting with traditional market and distribution industry stakeholders.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

However, the union claims that mart workers, who are stakeholders, were excluded from this process. Since changing the day off to a weekday significantly affects working conditions, mart workers should participate in the decision-making process as stakeholders.

Daegu Mayor Hong Jun-pyo views the change of the mandatory closure day of large discount stores as a new direction for the development of the local distribution industry and believes it will provide convenience for Daegu citizens to shop on public holidays. On the 16th, he stated on Facebook, "Closing large discount stores on Sundays does not revive traditional markets. This policy was created based on a flawed logic structure that suppresses the possessions of the wealthy to benefit the less fortunate, a claim made by leftists."

Mayor Hong added, "Traditional markets and small business owners should be supported through other policies." This appears to be a response to criticisms that changing the mandatory closure day of large discount stores is "killing traditional markets and small business owners." In fact, Daegu City has announced plans to prepare win-win cooperation measures between large and small-medium distribution businesses and to promote the revitalization of traditional markets and strengthen the competitiveness of small business owners.

If the change of the mandatory closure day to weekdays is successfully established in Daegu, it is expected to spread to other local governments. In response, the Mart Union held a press conference on the 17th, stating, "Changing the mandatory closure day to weekdays is a robbery of workers' health rights and small business owners' survival rights," and criticized, "This cannot be changed without the consent of mart workers, who are stakeholders." They also expressed concern that "If the mandatory closure day is changed to weekdays as planned in Daegu, it will have significant influence and repercussions on other local governments."

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