56% of Companies Say Working 69 Hours a Week Is Extremely Exceptional

As the government pushes for a reform of the working hours system, a survey targeting companies revealed that even if the unit for managing overtime work is expanded, cases of working long hours up to 69 hours per week will be extremely rare.

Earlier, on the 6th, the Ministry of Employment and Labor announced a working hours reform plan that expands the unit for managing overtime work from 'week' to 'month, quarter, half-year, and year,' with the intention of "working up to 69 hours in a week when there is a lot of work and resting well when there is less."

According to a survey conducted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the reform plan for the working hours system, targeting 302 companies that perform overtime work, 56% of companies said they would utilize the changed overtime system if the management unit for overtime work is expanded from weekly to monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or yearly units.

Among the companies that would utilize it, 72.2% said they would use it temporarily when there are specific reasons such as increased delivery volume, equipment breakdowns, or peak seasons.

The response rate for using the overtime work plan even during normal times was 27.8%.

When asked about the maximum expected weekly working hours if the overtime management unit is changed, 40.2% of the responding companies answered "52 to less than 56 hours," and 34.3% answered "56 to less than 60 hours." About three-quarters, 74.5%, responded that they would use it for less than 60 hours.

Next were 60 to less than 64 hours (16.0%), 64 to less than 68 hours (5.9%), and 68 hours or more (3.6%) in order.

Among the companies that responded they would work "60 hours or more per week" under the overtime reform, a significant number were in the manufacturing industry (90.7%) facing severe labor shortages. By size, small and medium-sized enterprises (76.7%) were the majority.

Also, when asked about the preferred unit for operating overtime work if the management unit is expanded, 46.7% responded that they would operate on a monthly basis, the highest proportion. This was followed by quarterly (27.8%), yearly (16.6%), and half-yearly (8.9%).

There is also a call for strengthening health protection measures if overtime work is expanded. Regarding health protection measures, many companies chose "establishing more diverse selectable health protection systems" (32.5%) and "allowing labor and management to autonomously select health protection measures" (30.8%).

Regarding the use of annual leave, 45.4% of the responding companies said they use it all as vacation. Companies that provide monetary compensation accounted for 54.6%. The most common reason for compensating annual leave with pay instead of using the leave was "difficulty in taking leave due to heavy workload" (32.7%).

Regarding the working hours savings account system, which allows excess work compensation to be saved as time instead of wages and used as vacation, 9.9% of companies said they "actively utilize" it, and 37.8% said they would "consider using the system," totaling 47.7%.

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