On the 24th, the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee decided to refer the Yellow Envelope Act (Labor Relations Act) directly to the plenary session solely by the opposition party.

At the full meeting of the Environment and Labor Committee, the agenda to directly refer the Yellow Envelope Act was unanimously approved by anonymous voting among members of the Democratic Party and the Justice Party, while members of the People Power Party had left the meeting.

The Yellow Envelope Act was approved solely by the opposition party in the Environment and Labor Committee on February 21 and was referred to the Judiciary Committee. The Judiciary Committee took up the bill on March 27 and began a systematic and detailed review, but the review has not been completed even after 90 days since the referral.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the National Assembly Act, if the Judiciary Committee does not complete the review of a specific bill within 60 days, the relevant standing committee may refer the bill to the plenary session with the agreement of the party floor leaders or with the approval of three-fifths of the total members. Among the 16 members of the Environment and Labor Committee, 9 are from the Democratic Party and 1 from the Justice Party.

With the bill undergoing the direct referral procedure to the plenary session, it is expected that the bill can be presented at the plenary session during the June extraordinary session. The National Assembly Act stipulates that if no agreement is reached after a 30-day deliberation period on the direct referral agenda, the decision on whether to refer the bill shall be made by a vote at the first plenary session.

The Yellow Envelope Act includes provisions that allow those who are not parties to the labor contract but have a position to substantially and concretely control and determine the working conditions of workers, such as the original contractor, to be regarded as employers, and limits claims for damages related to labor disputes. The Yellow Envelope Act was proposed during the 21st National Assembly following the strike trial of subcontractor unions at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. Last August, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering filed a damage claim worth 47 billion won against five executives of the subcontractor union.

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