Government Announces Ordinance for Revised Labor Law

The minister of labor recently submitted an ordinance for labor law amendments (called a ‘Temporary Worker Law’ or ‘Contract and Dispatched Worker Law’) on April 19.

The ordinance designates in which cases temporary workers can be upgraded to regular workers after being hired for more than two years: workers who have certificates in sixteen professions (such as doctors, attorneys and real estate appraisers) along with part-time lecturers and researchers in a college who have doctorate degrees. It also increases the number of occupations that allow dispatched workers from 138 to 187.

The government will later decide whether a temporary worker agency illegally dispatched workers according to dispatched worker status.

The government made this draft ordinance because a revised labor law is set to take into effect starting this July. The law mandates that the management switch temporary workers to regular workers after hiring them for two years.

As stated by the ordinance, temporary workers who have doctorates, specialists in 16 professions, and professional engineers can’t be regular workers even though they have worked in a place over two years.

The sixteen professions are: real estate appraiser, registered architect, certified public labor practitioner, certified public accountant, tariff officer, patent attorney, attorney, actuary, claim adjustment specialist, veterinarian, licensed tax accountant, pharmacist, doctor, dentist, herbal medicine practitioner, and herbal doctor.

Three professions were excluded from the list after debates while drafting the ordinance rose: nurse, elementary and middle school teacher and after school teacher. The workers in the professions will be permanent starting July this year after they work for two years.

Another case in which temporary workers can’t be regular workers after two years employment is also stated in the ordinance: temporary workers who work in government sponsored jobs (as part of the government’s unemployment policy) and dispatched workers whose transition period to regular workers is specified in other ordinances.

Professionals who earn more than a certain amount of money a year can’t be regular workers. Their income level is designated by the labor minister and it will be an estimated 69 million won.

The number of jobs which can use dispatched workers will increase from 138 to 187. As a result, dispatched workers will grow from 66,315 as of late 2006 to 70-80 thousand next year.

Lee Sang-su, minister of labor, said, “The revised ordinance focuses on protecting the vulnerable. After public hearings in early May, we will finalize the ordinance and propose it to the Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations.”

But the proposed ordinance sparked protests from the management as well as the labor.

The Korea Employers Federation (KEF) issued a statement, saying, “The ordinance falls short of the original purpose: correcting discrimination against temporary workers and enhancing flexibility in the labor market.” The KEF demanded that the government expand the scope of dispatched workers and cases which allow contract workers.

The labor sector argued, “The proposed ordinance is highly likely to increase the number of temporary workers. The government has to reconsider and revise the draft immediately.”

libra@donga.com