Bargaining Tool Between Labor and Management

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has proposed that businesses set up a standing organization between labor and management. Attention is focused on its result as the business world agrees with the necessity of dialogues in principle.

The chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, Lee Soo-ho, met with the chairman of the Korean Employers Federation, Lee Soo-young, on Monday. “We need to make an permanent establishment to discuss labor issues consistently as negotiations on collective bargaining and wages are expected to begin after the general election,” he said at the meeting.

In reply, Lee Soo-young, the chairman of the Korean Employers Federation, said that “I agreed with him in terms of having an official route to having dialogues. But we have to assess its structure more cautiously.”

Both sides decided to discuss this issue further through working-level meetings.

So far, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has not been involved in the Korea Tripartite Commission. If it can have regular negotiations with the Korean Employers Federation representing businesses, it is likely to have a positive impact on addressing labor disputes.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions demanded that the Korean Employers Federation should refrain from making announcements of triggering conflicts between labor and management.

“We will follow it in principle, but some differences between both labor and management should be accepted. Because wage gaps between conglomerates and small businesses are huge and our business market is polarized, each of them should have their own guidelines, with conglomerates freezing wages and small businesses increasing them by 3.7 percent,” the Korean Employers Federation explained.

Meanwhile, the unions chairman Lee Soo-ho urged his counterpart to secure paid leaves on the day of the general election for temporary workers to allow them to vote.

The Korean Employers Federation answered that it would issue an official statement to its members to ensure reasonable time to block misunderstandings in terms of restricting the right to vote.

On this day, the chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, Lee Soo-ho, made a return visit in response to his counterpart’s visit to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions’ headquarters on March 8.

Hyun-Jin Kim bright@donga.com