[Editorial] New Labor-Management Framework for Economic Recovery

A country where it is easy to run a business and people want to invest. A country where such engines of growth running fast will see its national wealth and new jobs increase and workers enjoy a decent life. Healthy labor-management relations help create such a country.

Yesterday the Ministry of Labor and a private research group came up with a plan to enhance labor-management relations, which can be viewed as a good start to establish a new framework for labor-management relations. The plan tried to improve labor practices and existing systems by making clear the rights and obligations of both labor and management. Of course, the two sides may have complaints about the new plan. Now the labor community has protested against strengthening the management`s right to opposition, while some industries are expressing disappointment about the plan.

However, to strengthen the management`s right to opposition is inevitable to avoid situations where excessive collective action by unionists and rigid labor market undermine the economy`s competitiveness. Meanwhile, the Labor Ministry`s plan also includes many clauses that strengthen the right to labor, including allowance of more than one unions within a company and guarantee of workers` livelihood when paying for damage caused by labor strikes. The plan has some problems in that it sticks to "arithmetic equality" like giving the same number of benefits to labor and management because many investors are reluctant to invest in Korea due to excessive exercise of the right to labor by trade unions.

And participation in management that unionists are calling for should not be allowed to the extent that it hobbles the competitiveness of the economy and reasonable investment. If unions want to give a voice in management, they should be responsible for the results of management to that extent.

We hope that the Labor Ministry`s plan will be improved based on collection of various opinions. The government and ruling and opposition parties should cooperate on legislation, not conscious of the upcoming general election. In particular, both labor and management, who well understand that peace between the two parties is the only way for them to coexist, should make concessions to reach agreement.

The government, labor and management and the political community should observe in which direction foreign countries are going. German Prime Minister Gerhard Schroder, chairman of the leftist Social Democratic Party, gave up an economic model that put welfare first and proposed new economic goals, such as enhancement of flexibleness of the labor market, thereby earning support from the rightist Christian Democratic Party. Lula da Silve, Brazil’s president from the Labor Party, jumpstarted economic recovery by rejecting populism based on equal distribution and choosing pragmatic policies for economic growth.