The Korean government has withdrawn its controversial proposal to revise working hours to a maximum of 69 hours a week and will maintain the current 52-hour workweek while providing improvement measures for some industries and occupations.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced the results of a survey on working hours on Nov. 13. The survey was conducted through door-to-door interviews with 6,030 people in order to hear the opinions of labor, management, and the general public. To enhance the accuracy of the results, the survey participants were fully informed of relevant systems and questions.
According to the survey results, the 52-hour workweek (40 statutory hours plus 12 hours of overtime) was largely settled, but some industries and occupations were still having difficulties.
However, while 48.2 percent of the respondents said that the 52-hour workweek has helped to eliminate long working hours, 54.9 percent said that it is difficult to reflect the diverse needs of different industries and occupations on the working system.
When asked how they responded to the 52-hour workweek, companies said they utilized inclusive wages (39.9 percent) and hired additional workers (36.6 percent), giving up orders (30.6 percent), and ignoring laws and regulations (17.3 percent).
More respondents of labor, management and the general public agreed than disagreed with the proposal to extend the duration of the overtime work unit, and the difference in percentage between the two was even greater when limited to certain industries and occupations.
When asked which sectors need to reorganize overtime management units, both labor and management responded that overtime management units should be reorganized in the manufacturing and construction industries and for installation, maintenance, production, health, medical and research, and engineering and technology workers.
The Korean government has decided to accept the public opinions shown in this survey. Accordingly, while maintaining the current framework of the 52-hour workweek, the government plans to discuss with labor and management a complementary plan to allow some industries and occupations experiencing difficulties in the field to choose an overtime management unit if labor and management wish.
As for industries and occupations to be reorganized, the Korean government will put in place safeguards to address concerns about long working hours and health rights, and will also establish various measures to ensure that employees are compensated for their hard work.
“As we will build public consensus through labor-management dialogues, we expect labor organizations as well as business organizations to participate in the dialogues and have substantive discussions,” said Lee Sung-hee, vice minister of employment and labor. “The government will support the labor-management dialogues by promptly launching empirical data analysis and additional surveys to select industries and occupations that need reforming.”