Yoon orders revision to workweek extension plan

Politics

Published: 16 Mar. 2023, 16:13

Yoon orders revision to workweek extension plan

Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions protest behind Labor Minister Lee Jung-sik during a discussion on the working hour reform plan with other labor representative held in Seoul on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

President Yoon Suk Yeol has ordered a revision to the government’s plan to extend the maximum work week.

According to the presidential office Thursday, President Yoon believes over 60 work hours a week to be “unreasonable,” even including overtime.

“President Yoon expressed regret that the government’s proposed plan did not include an appropriate ceiling on working hours, and ordered supplementary measures to be taken,” said Ahn Sang-hoon, the president’s senior secretary for social affairs, during a press briefing Thursday.

“People have raised the need to improve the rigid 52-hour workweek system for some time,” said Ahn.

He stressed that the Labor Ministry’s latest plan was to give more flexibility in working hours by allowing labor and management to decide schedules.

Ahn said the bill “is to ensure the right to choose working hours according to agreements between labor and management, as well as workers’ right to health and rest.”

The president’s senior secretary denied that the Labor Ministry’s plan aimed to encourage longer working hours, as critics have alleged since the proposal was announced last week.

“The government will craft an improved plan after listening closely to various opinions on the ground, including millennial and generation Z workers and non-unionized workers,” Ahn said.

The Labor Ministry on March 6 announced a plan to allow companies to temporarily extend working hours to 69 hours a week, including overtime, when demand is high.

Under the proposed bill, total working hours will remain at 52 a week, but companies will be able to calculate the average over longer periods of time: monthly, half-yearly or annually.

The plan reflects demands from smaller companies struggling under the restrictive 52-hour limit, which forces many of them to reduce orders or hire more workers.

The bill nevertheless faced a strong backlash, including criticism from foreign media that emphasized Korea’s longtime practice of overworking its employees.

Some reports even pointed to gwarosa, or “death from overwork.”

Even a new labor union representing younger workers expressed opposition to the government’s plan.

Saerogochim, or “Refresh,” as the union is called, released a statement the day after the government announced its plan that accused the proposal of undermining existing mechanisms to protect laborers from overwork.

The biggest concern is that with smaller companies facing labor shortages, employees may be pressured to waive vacation time.

The liberal Democratic Party has demanded that the new proposal be entirely scrapped.

Even the president’s conservative People Power Party (PPP) called on the government to reconsider the plan.

Newly elected PPP leader Kim Gi-hyeon said extending the maximum work week to 69 hours is excessive.

“More opinions on how to make a flexible workweek that remains within the regulated limit for working hours should be collected before making a decision,” Kim said.

Although Korea’s average working hours have shrunk more than 10 percent over the past decade, Koreans still work longer hours than the OECD average.

According to the OECD, Koreans worked 1,915 hours a year in 2021.

That was 200 hours more than the OECD average of 1,716 hours.

The only countries with longer working hours were Mexico with 2,128 hours, Costa Rica with 2,072 hours, Columbia with 1,964 hours and Chile with 1,916 hours.

Germany was the lowest among the 38 OECD members with 1,349 hours.

Americans worked 1,791 hours while Japanese worked 1,601 hours.

The 52-hour workweek was first implemented in July 2018, beginning with big companies.

The regulation has applied to smaller companies since 2021, though the limit does not apply to companies with less than five employees.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]