Labor Commission Appoints 104 Expert Semi-Full-Time Mediators... "Proactive Prevention of Labor-Management Conflicts"

The National Labor Relations Commission will appoint more than 100 semi-full-time mediators with practical experience and expertise to proactively address labor-management disputes.

The Central Labor Relations Commission announced on March 26, 2026, that it, along with 13 regional labor relations commissions, will appoint semi-full-time mediators for 2026 and officially launch on-site activities.

Yonhap News

Semi-full-time mediators are composed of experts with extensive hands-on experience in labor relations and in-depth knowledge of industry-specific characteristics. They work as part of teams with investigators to carry out continuous, field-oriented mediation activities. In particular, they provide preventive and close-contact mediation services by visiting workplaces even before the official filing of labor dispute mediation requests to identify potential sources of conflict, and by conducting intensive on-site mediation when labor-management negotiations are at an impasse.

To date, the activities of semi-full-time mediators have produced significant results in preventing labor disputes or resolving industrial actions at an early stage in key sectors closely related to the daily lives of citizens, such as hospitals, bus companies, and railroads. As a result, the commission's mediation settlement rate has remained stable at around 50%, recording 43.6% in 2023, 52.1% in 2024, and 50.5% in 2025.

This year, a total of 104 semi-full-time mediators will be appointed. The commission has designated 102 workplaces as "priority support workplaces," including those where mediation requests are frequently repeated and those where labor disputes may have significant social repercussions, to proactively and continuously support labor-management negotiations.

In particular, this year, the expertise of semi-full-time mediators will be focused on preventing and resolving new types of labor disputes that are expected to increase due to amendments to the Trade Union Act. These include mediation cases involving subcontractor unions against principal employers and mediation cases related to management decisions that affect working conditions.

Park Sukun, Chairperson of the Central Labor Relations Commission, stated, "As the labor environment becomes more layered and interests grow more complex, it is important to ensure that the purpose of the law amendment is stably established in the field." He added, "Based on the expertise and on-site experience of semi-full-time mediators, we will provide mediation services that both labor and management can trust and do our utmost to prevent new types of labor disputes."

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