Top Priority

The ruling Saenuri Party holds a supreme council meeting in its representative office in the National Assembly on July 20.
The ruling Saenuri Party holds a supreme council meeting in its representative office in the National Assembly on July 20.

 

The Korean government and the ruling Saenuri Party set labor reform as their top priority for the second half of this year.

In this context, they are going to be in pursuit of labor market flexibility, a wage peak, and the co-prosperity of large and small companies so as to prevent adverse factors such as the wide gap between the wages of regular and non-regular workers and a youth unemployment rate of over 10 percent from exacerbating declines in productivity, household income, domestic consumption and so on.

“We need to tackle economic inefficiency if we are to renovate the domestic economy, and this can’t be done with labor reform,” ruling party leader Kim Moo-sung said at the supreme council meeting held in his office in the National Assembly on July 20, adding, “During the rest of this year, I will concentrate my resources on the cause for the future of my country, even if those who are opposed to the labor market reform opt to turn their backs on me in the upcoming general and presidential elections.”

According to the ruling party, polarization between employees is one of the most serious problems that Korean society is facing. It is planning to work harder to narrow the gaps between large and small companies, regular and temporary workers, the middle-aged and the young, males and females, the highly-educated and the rest.

The head of the ruling party recently met with President Park Geun-hye. They agreed to the urgency of the reform of the labor market. The President also asked him to strive for it so the government’s reform drive in its third year can bear fruit.

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