"Standardized Weekly Working Hours Must Be Revised"
"Eradicate Abuse of the Comprehensive Wage System" Promotion
Government to Announce Legislative Notice on April 17
The government, ruling party, and the Presidential Office are pushing legislation to guarantee long-term leave for workers. They are also preparing measures to eradicate the misuse of the 'comprehensive wage system,' which involves prepayment of various allowances, and to supplement the worker representative system. This move comes as the government seeks to revise the current system, which allows up to 52 working hours per week, to a '69-hour workweek,' amid strong backlash mainly from the 2030 MZ generation, prompting efforts to manage the situation.
On the 31st, the People Power Party held a breakfast meeting at the National Assembly with government and Presidential Office officials to discuss the restructuring of working hours. Park Dae-chul, the chairman of the Policy Committee, briefed after the meeting, saying, "We discussed legislating to prevent abuses occurring in the field, such as the uniform weekly work system reform, eradicating misuse of the comprehensive wage system, and supplementing the worker representative system." He added, "We also discussed legislating a leave system that allows our workers to freely take long-term leave."
This meeting was arranged to gather public opinion centered around the party following strong backlash earlier this month against the government's legislative notice on the '69-hour workweek.' Earlier this month, the Ministry of Employment and Labor announced a 'working hours system reform plan' allowing up to 69 hours of extended work per week. The government and ruling party explained that this system aims to establish a 'flexible working environment where one works when working and rests when resting.'
However, there was backlash mainly from people in their 20s and 30s, arguing that it would inevitably encourage long working hours. In particular, the so-called 'MZ Union,' known as Saerogochim Labor Council, held a meeting with the Democratic Party of Korea on the 28th and agreed to take a united stance of "absolutely not accepting" the 69-hour workweek reform plan. They also agreed to discuss a complete ban on the comprehensive wage system.
On the 31st, a closed breakfast meeting between the ruling party and the government regarding the working hours reform plan was held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul. The meeting was attended by Park Dae-chul, Chairman of the Policy Committee of the People Power Party, and Im E-ja, the ruling party's floor spokesperson on the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee, as well as Lee Jeong-sik, Minister of Employment and Labor, and Lee Gwan-seop, Senior Secretary for National Planning at the Presidential Office. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@
In response, the People Power Party has been actively trying to appease the MZ generation. Earlier, on the 24th, the party’s youth leadership met with the MZ Union along with government and Presidential Office officials for a 'chimaek gathering' (chicken and beer meeting) and promised to reform companies' misuse of the comprehensive wage system and the annual leave promotion system. President Yoon Suk-yeol personally called during the meeting to listen to the difficulties of young workers and conveyed his intention to reflect these in policy design from the start.
At that time, the party-government-Presidential Office group agreed to review the side effects of the comprehensive wage system and companies' misuse of the annual leave promotion system and to improve related systems. Chairman Yoo said, "The comprehensive wage system is used in companies where time calculation is difficult, but it is being abused even in companies where it is easy, so we asked for improvements." They also agreed to address the issue that, contrary to its purpose, companies only encourage leave use but do not pay for unused annual leave.
Chairman Park emphasized that "no matter how good the content is, if workers are suspicious and anxious, it is not a 'good system,'" and added, "We will listen to the voices of not only the MZ generation but also small and medium-sized enterprises and middle-aged workers going forward."
The party-government-Presidential Office group plans to continue gathering public opinion through future meetings and conduct a nationwide survey involving about 6,000 participants as well as in-depth interviews.
The government announced the legislative notice on working hours on the 6th of this month and plans to collect opinions by the 17th of next month to reach a final conclusion.
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