Unrealistic Policy
Kim Young-bae, vice chairman of the Korea Employers Federation, said on May 25 that a large number of Korean companies are currently facing a very challenging situation after the government recently promised to provide a full-time position for every temporary employee working for the Incheon International Airport Corporation.
“Unlike what the government said, those employees are not temps but regular workers employed by partner companies in partnership with the corporation, and this issue should be dealt with as one related to large and small companies rather than regular and non-regular workers,” he explained.
He went on to say, “Labor movements in South Korea are characterized by being driven by militant unions with no less than 73% of union members in the country being those working for companies with at least 1,000 employees, which has led to an excessive increase in the wages of full-time workers at large companies and an increasingly worsening pay divide as one of the most urgent problems currently witnessed in the local labor market.”
He also pointed out that such a rapid increase in the wages of the full-time workers hired by large corporations needs to be kept in check in view of the fact that South Korean workers are paid more than those in Japan with Japan’s GNI per capita far exceeding South Korea’s.