Posted May. 24, 2004 22:11,
As the change to the five-day, 40-hour work per week system nears, it turns out that seven or eight out of 10 companies are planning to cut down on salaries if the labor union does not agree to adjust the days of holidays per year according to the revised labor standard law.
The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) reported on May 24 the results of their survey on 111 companies in Seoul with more than 300 employees, called the 40-hour per Week Adaptation Plan. Seventy six point nine percent of the respondent companies said that they would link the collective negotiation to salary bargaining if the labor union does not accept revising the collective agreement according to the revised version of laws, including the issues of eradication of monthly holidays, non-paid menstrual holidays, and others.
Also, 13.5 percent said that it would not hesitate to take harsh measures such as not drawing conclusions for the collective bargaining or even nullifying the collective agreement, which prospects on further difficulty of the five-day working system adaptation for the company-union negotiation.
The contracted holidays given under the collective agreement or the employment rules include: 3.8 days of summer special holiday, 1.5 days of family celebrations and condolences, 0.6 day of companys founding day, and others.
Sixty nine point three percent of the respondent companies said that they would cut down 20 percent of the contracted holidays in regard to the five-day work week system adaptation, and 17 percent responded that they would cut down by 21 to 40 percent.
Meanwhile, 49.5 percent of all companies hold bi-weekly Saturday holidays, and 35.2 percent have Saturday holiday.
However, 70.5 percent among these use yearly or monthly holidays for the Saturdays off.
Fifteen point nine percent were implementing the 40-hour week or the 42-hour system for the every Saturday or bi-weekly Saturday off plan.
Toyota Motors succeeded in freezing their salaries even with their tremendous turn-out in 2002 and 2003, said Jeon Moo, industrial environment team director of the KCCI. The labor union of large corporations should withdraw their excessive demands in regard to the five-day working system considering their social economic influences.