Work Less than Japan by 7 days

On 6th, five economic organizations announced to oppose the government’s bill for 5 day work weeks; KorCham, the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), Korea Employers Federation (KEF), Korea International Trade Association (KITA) and Korean Federation of Small Business (KFSB).

The five economic organizations insisted that the government’s bill is behind of international level and it allows too many holidays considering Korea Economy. So the government should prepare a realistic bill that can be accepted by companies. The main points are below;

▽ Introduction of legal working hours =meeting international level ▽ Sunday= unpaid holiday ▽ the abolition of monthly holiday for female workers ▽ introduction of flexible working system for seasonal conditions ▽reduction of additional payment for extensional working to 25% at the level of ILO standard. KorCham criticized the government that it promises to abolition monthly holiday for women and maintain the level of payment. It added that the government’s behavior is not reasonable as an arbitrator.

▽ should reflect the reality of industries= the government decided to introduce the system gradually to minimize the shocks on industries, and apply this system on all of business employing more than 30 workers by July of 2006. However, industries insists that it is the policy to wither small and medium sized business practicing 53.5 hours actually. They take an example of Japan of suspending the regulation for 10 years after amending it. They suggest postponing the system as late as possible and to support the small and medium sized business introducing this system in early time.

▽ securing industrial competitiveness= industries say that if the bill validates, the holidays for Korean workers become 136 – 146 days and more than Japan (129 – 139 days) by 7 days. They also insist that if Korea of less than 10,000 dollars in GNP works less than developed countries, the international competitiveness will decrease.

Therefore, they suggest adjusting annual and monthly holidays into 15 days, and Tree Planting Day, National Memorial Day and Workers’ Day into Saturday, and reduce one day for each from New Year and Korean New Year holidays.

Rae-Jeong Park ecopark@donga.com