Park Kwang-on: "We Will Do Our Best to Pass the Yellow Envelope Act... Let's Have a Serious Discussion, Ruling Party"

Park Kwang-on, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, reaffirmed his determination to pass the Yellow Envelope Act (amendments to Articles 2 and 3 of the Labor Union Act) on the 22nd. Floor leader Park demanded serious negotiations from the ruling party regarding the passage of the Yellow Envelope Act.

At the policy coordination meeting held at the National Assembly that day, Floor leader Park said, "The Democratic Party will do its best to pass the so-called Yellow Envelope Act, which guarantees legal union activities." He explained, "The recent Supreme Court ruling means that the National Assembly must respond, and the president no longer has grounds to exercise the veto power. In the UK, when claiming damages against unions, there is a separate cap based on the size of the union, but in reality, there are no cases of claiming damages against unions. The reason for the absence of damage claims is a social consensus that holding labor disputes responsible and going backward is less beneficial to the community than moving forward."

Floor leader Park said, "The Yellow Envelope Act originated from a citizen fundraising campaign that began with a 4.7 billion won damage compensation ruling against the Ssangyong Motor union in 2014," and warned, "(The ruling party) many citizens joined forces to move forward, and the community effort led to the Yellow Envelope Act. The People Power Party should stop its malicious attacks on the Supreme Court. This is an act that threatens the constitutional order."

Park Kwang-on, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is speaking at the policy coordination meeting held at the National Assembly on the 22nd. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

He added, "The common point of countries that achieve national integration and welfare states is that labor and management coexist and labor, management, and government have reached a social grand compromise," and said, "I hope the People Power Party deeply reflects on this lesson. They cannot move toward the future with an attitude hostile to workers and legal union activities. We demand that the ruling party seriously discuss the Yellow Envelope Act with the Democratic Party."

After the policy coordination meeting, Lee So-young, floor spokesperson of the Democratic Party, told reporters, "The Yellow Envelope Act was decided to be directly referred to the plenary session by the standing committee," and explained, "When a direct referral decision is made, a 30-day negotiation period among the parliamentary negotiation groups follows, and after this period, a vote to decide whether to directly refer the bill to the plenary session is automatically scheduled." Spokesperson Lee introduced, "If the direct referral to the plenary session is decided, the bill will go through the bill submission procedure and then proceed to a roll-call vote. Since the Yellow Envelope Act will be automatically submitted to the plenary session after this 30-day period, it is not a matter of decision but is scheduled according to the National Assembly Act procedures."

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