By Kang Hyun-kyung, Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporters
The governing Grand National Party (GNP) and representatives of labor and management agreed Thursday to delay the implementation of a rule allowing multiple unions at workplaces for three years or more.
This means the controversial plan will not be introduced during the Lee Myung-bak administration. The plan is expected to be introduced in 2013 at the earliest.
But if an overall agreement is not reached amongst the parties, the plan will be implemented from next year.
Representatives from the Federation of Korea Trade Unions (FKTU) and the Korea Employers' Federation (KEF), are still negotiating on another agenda item ― banning companies from paying wages to full-time union representatives.
They are nearing an accord of allowing up to three full-time union leaders to be paid a salary when membership is less than 1,000; and one to be paid when there are 2,000 members.
Hyundai Automotive Group, which includes Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors and dozens of subsidiaries, pulled out of the KEF on Monday, accusing it of being too weak in negotiating with the unions.
``The federation has failed to represent our interests in talking with the unions,'' a senior Hyundai executive told The Korea Times, ``We want to cease paying wages to full-time union representatives from next year.
Hyundai's withdrawal is taken as the first sign of an internal dispute among employers amidst negotiations with the unions over the government's plan to abolish the payment of wages to full-time union leaders and allow multiple unions at worksites.
GNP lawmakers plan to approve the possible labor-management agreement on the two issues Friday if an agreement is reached.
The party was scheduled to adopt its official stance on the issues Thursday but delayed the decision as representatives of labor and management failed to narrow differences regarding paid union workers.
Earlier, the GNP set up four-party talks with the FKTU, KEF, and the Ministry of Labor in an effort to hammer out differences on the two issues.
Opposition parties and the nation's largest labor union federation, the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), accused the four-party talks of poor labor representation.
Rep. Park Jie-won of the main opposition Democratic Party said the panel lacked legitimacy as opposition parties and the KCTU were not represented.
The DP insisted that multiple unions at each workplace should be allowed. It also noted that the issue of paid full-time labor unionists should be settled in labor-management negotiations.
Earlier, the ruling party proposed the government delay the implementation of allowing multiple unions at workplaces and phase out the practice of wages being paid to full-time union representatives.
The GNP's compromise plan came after FKTU and KEF showed few signs of reaching an agreement on the latter.
Unions claimed that their advocacy role would be ``doomed'' without full-time union representatives.