Difficult to Legislate Five-Day Workweek within This Year

As this year`s plenary session of the National Assembly is over, the legislation of the bill on the five-day workweek was dispelled.

Therefore, the government plans to draw its own amendment bill on Labor Standard Act to reduce the labor hours, and to submit the bill during an extraordinary session of the National Assembly next February.

According to the Ministry of Labor and the Korean Tripartite Commission (KTC) yesterday, the legislation was not achieved because the labor circle and the management circle did not reach the agreement on the introduction of the five-day workweek due to the conflicts in opinion. As the two circles are unlikely to achieve an agreement during the last extraordinary session of the National Assembly this year, the legislation of the bill within this year is almost impossible.

Evaluating that the agreement between the labor and the management circles was broken off, the government examined the necessary procedures for the government legislation in a vice-ministers` meeting yesterday presided over by the chief of the Office for the Government Policy Coordination Kim Ho-Shik.

The Ministry of Labor decided on Sunday to draw an amendment bill based on the draft submitted by the public welfare committee members, and to separately set up the concrete plan and schedule regarding the public sector including education and the government officials.

The Ministry of Labor plans to make a preliminary notice of the legislation at the end of this month after finalizing the amendment bill through the consultation with the party and government, and to submit the bill during an extraordinary session of the National Assembly next February. If the bill is passed by the extraordinary session of the National Assembly next February, the five-day workweek is likely to be enforced in the large corporations with minimum 1,000 employees and the public financial organizations beginning in the latter half of next year (July through December).

However, it is highly possible that the major contents of the government bill, such as the enforcement timing, would be revised in the National Assembly`s review process, if there is no agreement between the labor and management. Some of the Grand National Party members suggested that the government should enforce the five-day workweek gradually beginning in 2003.

Lee Young-Hun leej@donga.com