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The government is drawing criticism for its push to revise a law, Tuesday, a move that's being called pro-labor and anti-business, mostly because it would allow expanded membership of a company union to include dismissed workers as well as those not employed by the firm. Also to be allowed is legal recognition for Korea Teachers' and Education Workers' Union (KTU), a group of left-leaning educators outlawed in 2013 for including nine dismissed teachers in its membership.
The government says the revision is needed to ratify key clauses laid out by the International Labor Organization (ILO), a prerequisite to resolving a dispute over the free trade agreement between Korea and European countries.
Yet businesses say the move will only hurt their activities, long bogged down by militant unions known for their frequent threats and subsequent execution of strikes.
The labor-friendly policy will accelerate corporate deterioration already in significant progress due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they say, with foreign businesses here being forced out of Korea, a country long shunned for arbitrary implementation of inconsistent, labor-friendly policy.
The revision approved by the Cabinet, Tuesday, will be submitted to the National Assembly within July. The ruling party-majority National Assembly will almost certainly pass the revision at the urging of President Moon Jae-in whose voter base includes a lot of unionists. Similar submitted revisions failed to pass the previous Assembly due to opposition from businesses-backed right-leaning lawmakers.
"Time-wasting conflict between management and union will escalate, with corporate survival on the line," said Choo Kwang-ho, economic policy team leader at Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI).
The revision will allow greater bargaining power to outside hard-liners dubbed "labor movement specialists," an industry term referring to those whose only concern is about protecting vested interests of union members. They almost always threaten to sabotage firm operation by refusing to work or going on strikes until the firm caves.
Union members in his view could hire them in a strategic move to amplify their influence, tanking firms to the brink of a shutdown.
"The contention may start by demanding greater benefits and higher wages, but they will certainly end up with some politically divisive issues that has nothing to do with corporate growth only used as a stalling tactic to have their demands met," he added.
The revision is in line with ILO recommendations seeking to strengthen the collective bargaining rights of workers. Yet, upholding global standards is meaningless if deadlocks over existing problems have no immediate breakthrough, he stressed.
"Korea has specific, decades-long problems that long ailed businesses," Choo said.
Unions in many other advanced countries do not rationalize or justify indefinite strikes launched only to hike wages or bolster other benefits while company plants are occupied by some hardline members threatening violence, which shows no regard to the firm or the economy. The revision should therefore not be hastily implemented without due discussion and ways to abandon the embarrassing culture, he said.
"Some clauses in related labor laws are open for interpretation and arguing for global standards lacks standing to give boost to the revision," he said.
The government push for the revision could not be any more ill-timed, according to a coalition of groups representing employers including Korea Enterprises Federation and Federation of Middle Market Enterprises of Korea.
"The businesses are already experiencing extreme difficulty due to the virus-triggered economic crisis," said Park Che-khun, executive director of the Industrial Research Division at Korea Chamber Commerce & Industry (KCCI).
"It is regretful that the government is seeking revision knowing full well its implications for the struggling firms at a time of extreme financial strain. The revision up for discussion in the Assembly should be legislated properly in a way that can improve management-labor relations and bolster corporate competitiveness."
