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All parties need to start new dialogue body
The Republic of Korea has some of the best labor-related laws in the world. Unfortunately, however, it is second to none when it comes to labor-management disputes, particularly with the power of unions getting ever stronger under the labor-friendly Moon Jae-in government.
In a desperate bid to solve chronic labor problems at the end of 1997 in the wake of that year's foreign currency crisis that forced the nation to apply for an IMF bailout program, the government initiated the three-party committee of labor, management and government.
But the special apparatus could not attain its purpose due to conflicts of interest between unions and employers from the very start as the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), withdrew from it in less than two years in 1999. Its rival, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, followed suit in January 2016 to protest the then Park Geun-hye administration's labor policy.
To break the deadlock, Moon Sung-hyun, the new chairman of the committee, has proposed to hold a meeting of the representatives from the government, labor and management, Jan. 24, to discuss ways of creating a new dialogue body. All parties except the KCTU accepted the offer. The progressive group rejected it on the grounds that Moon had thrown it over the wall.
Yet, the two unions declared they would work together on such core issues as the hike of the minimum wage and the reduction of working hours, raising hope for the proposed dialogue.
Chairman Moon's proposal is timely when the economy is struggling to find a way out of prolonged doldrums due to labor disputes. Face-to-face conversation is the first step to narrow differences over pending issues.
We hope the meeting will provide momentum to help solve the long-standing feud between labor and management. The government should come up with reasonable policies that the two sides can trust, while the progressive KCTU needs to come to the meeting without irrational demands such as the release of its former chairman Han Sang-kyun now serving a three-year prison term for organizing violent street demonstrations.
