Labor Dispute Mediation Success Rate Increases by 5.6%p in One Year... Ulsan at '90%'

Last December, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Sejong Chungnam Headquarters and the Cargo Solidarity held a general strike and all-out struggle resolution rally.
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The mediation settlement rate for labor dispute mediation cases in the first quarter of this year increased by 5.6 percentage points compared to the first quarter of last year.

The Central Labor Relations Commission announced on the 23rd that the mediation settlement rate for labor dispute mediation cases in the first quarter of this year was 56.7%, up 5.6 percentage points from 51.1% in the same period last year.

The mediation settlement rate is calculated by dividing the number of mediation settlements by the number of mediation cases processed, excluding administrative guidance cases and withdrawn cases.

In the first quarter of last year, out of a total of 159 cases, 69 were settled through mediation, 6 were administrative guidance cases, and 18 were withdrawn, resulting in a mediation settlement rate of 51.1%.

However, in the first quarter of this year, out of a total of 142 cases, 68 were settled through mediation, 5 were administrative guidance cases, and 17 were withdrawn, raising the mediation settlement rate to 56.7%.

The Labor Relations Commission believes that the proactive and preventive mediation services, which have been a focus this year, contributed to increasing the mediation settlement rate and reducing labor disputes.

In fact, there were 10 labor disputes in the first quarter of this year, a 33% decrease compared to 15 cases in the previous year.

(Data provided by the Central Labor Commission)

Mediation settlement refers to cases where both labor and management voluntarily agree and withdraw during the mediation period, or both parties accept the mediation proposal presented by the Labor Relations Commission.

The Labor Relations Commission explained, "The improvement in the mediation settlement rate is mainly due to the expansion of proactive and preventive mediation services, such as the quasi-full-time mediation committee system applying ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) techniques even before the mediation application, to overcome the short mediation period (10 days)."

Most labor relations commissions showed an improvement in mediation settlement rates, among which the Ulsan Regional Labor Relations Commission achieved 90%, an increase of 57 percentage points compared to the previous year. Additionally, the Gyeongbuk Regional Labor Relations Commission and the Busan Regional Labor Relations Commission recorded high mediation settlement rates of 86% and 67%, respectively.

Kim Taegi, Chairman of the Central Labor Relations Commission, said, "It is not easy to mediate complex labor disputes within the short mediation period of 10 days. To increase the mediation settlement rate, we will further expand proactive mediation services before and after mediation and enhance the dispute resolution capabilities of the commission’s investigators and mediators."

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