Controversy over Workers` Wage Protection under the Five-day Workweek

According to a government report, released yesterday, an employer can be accused on civil and criminal charges if workers` wage dwindles due to the five-day workweek, which is expected to cause ripple effects in the nation.

Controversies and conflicts between the labor and the management are expected to intensify over thorny issues of readjusting workers` salaries under the five-day workweek system.

On releasing the report entitled “Briefing on deliberation of the labor standard law”, which was handed over from the Ministry of Legislation on August 29, Rep. Chun Jung-bae of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) argued, “The Ministry of Legislation pronounced clearly its stance that the five-day workweek should not result in a pay-cut for workers under deliberation of the reform bill.”

The report said that, “A salary-cut is a violation of Article 42, Paragraph 1 of the Law on Labor Standard, in which full payment is guaranteed. This is not just a declaratory regulation considering that a violation can put the employer on civil and/or criminal penalties for the wage unpaid.” This virtually is a determined regulation for protecting workers` salaries, claimed the Rep. Chun.

Yet, the Ministry of Legislation explained, “The document is a reference based on a probability during the deliberation process, prior to a cabinet meeting, rather than a formal authoritative interpretation.”

The Ministry noted that the Labor Ministry already announced the additional clauses on a pay-cut declaratory, and added to say that the document is intended to make case for sustaining the clauses in the additional provision in tact in a situation where the labor-management relationship is more important than wordings in the Labor Standard Law.

The Ministry of Labor also explained that this was just a comprehensive declaratory regulation without legal obligations as the controversial clause belonged to additional rules, not to the legally-binding body.

An official at the Labor Ministry warned of an exaggerated interpretation, saying, “The government is just be able to provide administrative guidelines so that the implementation of the five-day workweek does not entail pay-cuts for workers.”

The labor community expressed unanimous support for the stance provided by the Ministry of Legislation.

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) welcomed the Ministry`s announcement in a statement, saying, “The Ministry`s authoritative interpretation is consistent with the purpose of the five-day workweek, which is “to improve the living standard of workers”.” A member of the Korean Confederation of trade Union (KCTU) also said with eager anticipation, “The Ministry‘ interpretation will offer an opportunity to protect basic salary levels after the implementation of the five-day workweek as well as compensate for salary losses, such as reductions in the number of monthly/annual holidays and unpaid monthly leaves for female workers.”

In the meantime, the Korean Employers Federation (KEF) opposed as saying, “The Ministry of Labor has put an authoritative interpretation as declaratory on Article 4 of the additional provisions, which includes rules on salary protection.”

“We will ask our member companies to protect workers` salaries even when the legal working time reduces from 44 to 40 hours per week”, noted the KEF, adding, “a pay-cut will not be accompanied.”

Controversies are expected to continue over legal accountability of employers in case workers` wages are not kept in tact with the implementation of the five-day workweek.