손경식, Chairman of the Korea Employers Federation, Meets with Labor Committee Chair: "Widening Labor Disputes Will Cause Major Economic Damage"

Chairman Son Visits Kim Do-eup, Chairman of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee
"Labor Law Amendment... Will Cause Serious Disruption to the Industrial Ecosystem"

On the 23rd, Son Kyung-sik, Chairman of the Korea Employers Federation, and Kim Do-eup, Chairman of the National Assembly Judiciary Committee, are having a conversation in the office of the National Assembly Members' Office Building.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Son Kyung-sik, Chairman of the Korea Employers Federation, visited Kim Do-eup, Chairman of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, to express concerns about the labor law amendment bill.

On the 23rd, Chairman Son met with Chairman Kim at the National Assembly Members' Office Building in Yeouido, Seoul, stating, "If the amendment to the Labor Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act, which significantly expands the scope of employers and the concept of labor disputes, passes through the National Assembly, it will cause great damage to companies and the national economy as a whole."

The amendments to Articles 2 and 3 of the Labor Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act have now been transferred to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. This is the so-called 'Yellow Envelope Act.' The amendment defines the concept of an employer as "a person who, even if not a party to the employment contract, is in a position to substantially and concretely control or determine the working conditions of the worker."

Regarding the expansion of the employer scope, Chairman Son said, "The primary contractor may have to negotiate with tens or thousands of subcontractor unions," adding, "The civil law subcontracting system will collapse, and cooperation between companies will become difficult, seriously disrupting the industrial ecosystem." He further emphasized, "The Labor Union Act contains multiple criminal penalty provisions against employers," and "the abstract and non-objective expansion of the employer scope violates the principle of legality in criminal law."

Additionally, the scope of labor disputes will change from the existing "disagreement over claims related to the determination of working conditions" to "disagreement over claims related to working conditions." On this, Chairman Son stressed, "Labor unions will be able to engage in dispute actions even in ongoing litigation cases or matters involving high-level managerial decisions," warning that "demands for negotiations and strikes will surge, and labor-management conflicts will be prolonged."

Chairman Son also criticized the amendment's limitation on claiming damages individually for illegal acts by labor unions, stating, "In cases of joint illegal acts, it is difficult to clearly distinguish which specific individual's actions caused what damage," and "this will effectively make it impossible to claim damages." He expressed concerns that "this will result in protecting joint illegal acts of labor unions" and delivered the business community's review opinion letter to Chairman Kim Do-eup.