"Economic and Industrial Structural Transformation Era... Adversarial Labor-Management Relations Are a Crisis for All"

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] Amid the era of great transformation in the economic and industrial structure following the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns have been raised that if the adversarial labor-management relations, which are among the worst in the world, are not changed, both labor and management will face a crisis.

The Korea Employers Federation (KEF) held a "Symposium for Building Cooperative Labor-Management Relations" on the 29th at the Lotte Hotel in Sogong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul.

Son Kyung-sik, Chairman of KEF, said in his opening remarks at the symposium, "The world is currently experiencing a transition to a digital era with artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and the non-face-to-face (untact) situation caused by COVID-19, and new industries are emerging in various fields, rapidly changing the economic and social structure. In a social atmosphere where it is difficult to sympathize with the existing confrontational labor movement, if we fail to respond to the demands for change, both labor and management will lose their place before the people," he pointed out.

Chairman Son added, "The business community will practice ESG (environment, social, governance), transparent ethical management, and social contribution, and seek reasonable alternatives to establish cooperative labor-management relations. We also urge the labor sector to stop confrontational labor movements and work together to build cooperative labor-management relations."

Labor-management-government officials attending the symposium, including Park Dae-chul, Chairman of the National Assembly Environment and Labor Committee (People Power Party lawmaker), An Kyung-duk, Minister of Employment and Labor, Moon Sung-hyun, Chairman of the Economic, Social and Labor Council, and Heo Kwon, Executive Vice Chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, emphasized the importance of coexistence and cooperation between labor and management to cope with the great transformation in the economy, industry, and labor through their congratulatory speeches.

Professor Lee Jung of the Graduate School of Law at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, in his presentation titled "Stability Factors and Implications of Japanese Labor-Management Relations," argued that Japan's achievement of high economic growth was due to overcoming labor-management conflicts. Professor Lee cited the prioritization of working conditions over ideology, democratization within companies, and shared recognition of the social importance of labor-management relations as the background for overcoming labor-management conflicts in Japan.

Professor Kim Dong-won of Korea University’s Department of Business Administration, who presented "Suggestions for New Labor-Management Relations in Korea," advised, "To realize expanded pluralism, it is necessary to build autonomous labor-management relations by reducing excessive government intervention in the labor market, strengthen communication with new groups of workers, and share ideology between labor and management."

The symposium discussion, chaired by Lee Won-duk, former President of the Korea Labor Institute, included participants such as Professor Cho Jun-mo of Sungkyunkwan University’s Department of Economics, Kim Se-hyung, Editorial Advisor of Maeil Business Newspaper, Lee Byung-kyun, former Secretary-General of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, and Kim Young-gi, former Executive Vice President of Human Resources and Labor at LG Electronics, who all proposed the establishment of cooperative and future-oriented labor-management relations.

In particular, Professor Cho emphasized, "No matter how cooperative labor-management relations are, if they fall behind in the economic and technological environment, lose product competitiveness, and fail to gain social respect, they are meaningless. Labor-management relations must incorporate global, digital, and social values."