SME Sector: "Flexibility in 52-Hour Workweek and Improvement of Serious Accident Punishment Act Must Be Top Priority"

22nd National Assembly 'Legislative Agenda Forum for Small and Medium Enterprises'
Survey on Opinions of Small and Medium Enterprises and Small Business Owners

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small business owners identified the flexibilization of the 52-hour workweek application and improvements to the working hours system as the top legislative priorities for the 22nd National Assembly.

The Korea Federation of SMEs announced on the 13th that it held a 'Great Debate on SME Legislative Tasks' under the theme 'What We Hope from the 22nd National Assembly' at the KBIZ Hall of the Federation of SMEs.

The debate was the first event marking the 36th SME Week this year and was organized to discuss key legislative tasks for SMEs that must be addressed by the 22nd National Assembly. SME Week is a legally designated week established by the 'Framework Act on Small and Medium Enterprises' to raise public awareness about SMEs.

The session was chaired by ▲ Hong Seok-woo, Chairman of the Policy Advisory Committee of the Federation of SMEs (former Minister of Knowledge Economy), and featured discussants including ▲ Yoon Mi-ok, President of the Korea Women Venture Association ▲ Han Byung-joon, Chairman of the Korea Information Industry Cooperative ▲ Lee Dong-joo, Acting President of the Korea Institute for Small and Medium Business ▲ Bae Tae-joon, Professor at Hanyang University ▲ Cho Woong-gyu, Attorney at Barun Law Firm, along with over 300 SMEs and small business owners nationwide.

Choo Moon-gap, Head of the Economic Policy Headquarters at the Federation of SMEs and the keynote speaker, stated, “The 7.71 million SMEs, the backbone of the Korean economy, are currently facing internal and external difficulties such as high interest rates, low growth, and prolonged domestic demand stagnation,” adding, “To overcome these challenges, there are various legislative tasks in areas such as ▲ labor reform ▲ innovation growth ▲ win-win finance ▲ platform fairness ▲ fair coexistence, among which ‘labor reform’ is the most important.”

According to the 'Survey on SME and Small Business Owners’ Opinions on Legislative Tasks for SMEs in the 22nd National Assembly' conducted from April 29 to May 7 with 660 SMEs, the top legislative task that the National Assembly should prioritize was 'flexibilization of the 52-hour workweek application and improvement of the working hours system (38.9%).'

Following that were 'improvement of the punishment method and clarification of obligations under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act (18.3%)', 'expansion of win-win finance between SMEs and banks (12.9%)', and 'strengthening support for SME globalization (12.7%)' in order.

Regarding the 52-hour workweek, opinions were expressed that the current weekly work hour management should be expanded to include management units such as weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual. It was also argued that the application of working hours should be exempted for professionals or startup employees with equity shares. Many opinions suggested that the Serious Accidents Punishment Act should be improved by changing the current minimum one-year imprisonment to a maximum sentence and by specifying obligations according to industry and company size.

Meanwhile, only 15.8% responded that their expectations for the National Assembly’s economic legislation are ‘high,’ whereas 40.8% responded ‘low,’ which is more than 2.5 times higher. Regarding the impact of the National Assembly’s legislative activities and budget decisions on management, one in three responding companies (very high 9.8% + somewhat high 20.6%) answered that the impact is ‘high.’

Kim Ki-moon, Chairman of the Federation of SMEs, said, “Regarding working hours, it is reasonable to leave it to labor and management autonomy when meeting deadlines or when workers want to work more. The bill to postpone the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, which terrifies many SMEs and small business owners, should be the first to be handled when the 22nd National Assembly begins,” adding, “I hope that the discussions from today’s debate will be legislated so that politics supports the economy and helps solve the difficulties of SMEs together.”