By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff Reporter
Labor Minister Yim Tae-hee said Thursday that the government will put into effect a law that would ban full-time union officials from collecting pay checks from firms, and would also permit several labor unions to operate at a single company.
The government revised two clauses of the Union Law, which was passed in 1996, in an effort to improve labor-management relations. Due to strong resistance from union groups, the government decided to suspend the implementation of the two clauses until Dec. 31.
Minister Yim said that employees shouldn't get paid if they work fulltime for a union while not being involved in corporate activities and that labor unions should be financially self-sufficient
"Even if employees and management have reached an agreement, I will not accept it, if that goes against the principle," Yim said. "We should not look at the issue from a political perspective as it is a reform that we have to go through to heal the outdated labor-management relations in this global, competitive era."
He noted that competition is the fundamental principle in market economies and it should be respected in labor and management relations as well.