"Active Discovery of Shadow Regulations Needed"
Calls for Easing Penalties on Fair Trade Act Violations
The Korea Employers Federation announced on the 15th that it has submitted regulatory reform tasks to the government, including the mandatory installation of CCTV to prevent major accidents and the relaxation of working hours regulations for research and development (R&D) personnel.
The regulatory reform tasks selected by the Federation consist of 186 items identified across six areas: field difficulties, safety, corporate management, taxation, labor, and environment. In the safety sector, a representative proposal was to institutionalize the mandatory installation of CCTV to enhance the effectiveness of major accident prevention. It was explained that CCTV should be installed in hazardous work environments to enable real-time detection and response to accidents.
The Federation requested a reduction in the severity of penalties for violations of the Fair Trade Act. They proposed changing the current penalties of up to two years imprisonment or fines up to 150 million won for failure to submit designated materials or comply with audit obligations to administrative sanctions such as fines or corrective orders. They also suggested revising regulations that indiscriminately incorporate companies established or controlled by outside directors into affiliates.
In the labor sector, the Federation proposed relaxing working hours regulations for R&D, professional, and high-income workers. Their position is that overtime work should not be regulated without considering differences by industry or job type. They argued for improving guidelines on fixed-term workers and in-house subcontracting and for easing regulations on non-regular workers.
Additionally, they presented proposals including ▲expansion of tax credits for investment in national strategic technologies ▲expansion of support systems for eco-friendly vehicles and low-carbon technologies and facilities ▲charging basic electricity fees for electric vehicle charging stations based on actual usage ▲establishing registration standards for online suitable automobile sales businesses.
Kim Jaehyun, head of the Federation’s Regulatory Reform Team, emphasized, "Even small regulations often feel like cliffs to the affected companies. We must actively identify and improve bulky regulations that hinder investment and job creation, outdated analog regulations that cannot keep up with technological changes, and shadow regulations hidden in various places without legal grounds."
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