President does little to quell confusion over extended workweek proposal

Economy

Published: 22 Mar. 2023, 18:57 Updated: 22 Mar. 2023, 19:57

President does little to quell confusion over extended workweek proposal

Labor Minister Lee Jung-sik answers questions from lawmakers on the government's controversial workweek reform plan at a general meeting of the National Assembly's environment and labor committee on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

Confusion continues over Korea’s plan for an extended workweek, after President Yoon Suk Yeol proposed to keep weekly working hours below 60 — taking a step back from the original plan of allowing a maximum 69-hour workweek.

“Recently, there has been some controversy about the maximum weekly work hours,” Yoon said during a cabinet meeting held at the presidential office in central Seoul on Tuesday. “There is no change in my opinion that working over 60 hours a week is excessive in terms of health."

“Some dismiss this plan as a rollback of our policy for more flexible work hours,” he continued.

"But it is realistically difficult to protect the rights to health of workers in vulnerable environments without putting an upper threshold on weekly working hours.”

The government has been met with backlash since announcing a plan to increase the flexibility of the 52-hour workweek system on March 6, especially from young people.

The proposed plan aims to help smaller businesses that are financially burdened by working hour regulations.

During peak seasons, small businesses have been forced to cut back on orders or hire additional employees. But under the proposed changes, the maximum workweek could be temporarily extended to 69 hours by promising longer breaks for workers who have taken on extended overtime.

President Yoon said Tuesday that a weekly cap on work hours is necessary while also allowing work hours to be managed in a flexible manner. It was the first time for the Korean president to personally convey a message publicly in relation to the issue after a stream of contradictory statements coming from the top office.

Ahn Sang-hoon, the president’s senior secretary for social affairs, told a press briefing on March 16 that Yoon believes working over 60 hours a week is “unreasonable” and had ordered supplementary measures to be taken. Yet on Monday, the office reversed the statement and said that a cap on weekly work hours is not necessary and the maximum weekly workhours could surpass 60.

During a general meeting of the National Assembly's environment and labor committee held on Tuesday, Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Jung-sik addressed the confusion and delivered an apology.

“I feel heavy responsibility,” Lee said. However, he dismissed the demand to totally scrap the reform plan, saying the ministry will “come up with all possible alternative options.”

The government has reiterated its belief that it is a distortion to call the revision to the workweek system a “69-hour workweek plan.”

The labor ministry’s proposed scheme calls for diversifying the cap on overtime work on a monthly, quarterly, or even a yearly basis. This would theoretically allow employees to work up to 69 hours in a particular week when there is lots of work to do — but the change was perceived by labor unions and the young generation as simply as an extension of their hours to a maximum of 69 per week.

Korea's current law allows a 52-hour work week — 40 hours of regular work plus 12 hours of overtime.

Even under the current system, workhours can be stretched to maximum 129 hours a week, says Prof. Kwon Soon-won, a labor scholar at Sookmyung Women’s University and head of an advisory council on the government's reform plan. That is possible when a worker chooses to use flextime to work for six full days out of the one-month period for flextime within the boundary of total workhours.

“There would not have been such a misunderstanding if the government had compared its revision plan to the current system,” said an economist who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The government tried to quell fears of abuse of the proposed scheme by companies.

New rules do include a three-layered approach for the protection of workers’ health, according to the government, such as a minimum 11-hour rest period between working days; maximum weekly work hours set at 64; and maximum working hours kept below a four-week average of 64 hours a week. It says a larger basis for overtime measurement would reduce possible working hours — for instance, the maximum overtime would be capped at 70 percent of the possible 625 hours for annual calculations.

A survey on workers’ leave in 2021 released by the labor ministry showed that only 40.9 percent of companies who responded saw their employees use all their leave days, raising questions whether the right to rest could really be ensured.

BY KIM KI-CHAN, SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]