Gov’t to ease 52-hour workweek policy if labor and management want

The South Korean government announced on Monday that it will ease the 52-hour workweek policy for certain industries. It is a modified measure that was put forward eight months after the government announced a revised plan in March this year and faced the controversy of increasing weekly work hours to 69. However, the new plan is criticized for missing specific industries or exact work hours and simply handing the issue over to conversations between the labor, management, and government.

On Monday, the Ministry of Employment and Labor released the survey results on work hours and the direction of system improvement. The ministry surveyed 6,030 respondents, including 3,839 workers, 976 business owners, and 1,215 members of the general public, for two months since the end of June. According to the results, 41.4 percent of workers and 38.2 percent of business owners strongly agreed or agreed with increasing the time basis for overtime work management, which is currently done on a weekly basis. “We found out that more flexible work hours are required in the manufacturing and construction industries, as well as the fields of research and engineering, installation, maintenance, and production, and health and medical care,” said a ministry member.

The ministry decided to expand the time basis for overtime work management, which currently sets a limit of 12 hours per week, for the industries and fields that require more flexible work hours if the labor and management want. It plans to address the concern about excessive work hours by setting a weekly work hour limit for the relevant industries and fields.

However, specific details on which industries and fields will be subject to the new measure and to what extent the overtime work management time basis will be expanded were all missing during the Monday announcement. The ministry said they would be determined based on later conversations between the labor, management, and government. “The work hour system cannot be unilaterally decided as it has a huge impact on people’s lives and health,” said a member of the presidential office. “We will have sufficient discussions with both the labor and management.”


Ae-Jin Ju jaj@donga.com