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| Labor sector representatives of the Minimum Wage Council call for the government to review the decision to set next year's minimum wage at 6,030 won, during a press conference near the Ministry of Employment and Labor building in Sejong, Thursday. / Yonhap |
By Jhoo Dong-chan
The nation's two umbrella unions ― the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korea Trade Unions ― have raised an objection to the minimum wage deal agreed for next year, representatives said Thursday.
They claim that the wage for 2016, 6,030 won ($5.31), is too low and legal errors were made during the decision-making process. In turn, they asked the Ministry of Employment and Labor to review the decision.
The new minimum wage was set one week ago by the Minimum Wage Council, which is comprised of 27 members with nine representatives each from labor, management and the public sector. In the final vote, all nine labor representatives did not participate, protesting against the set amount which did not meet their expectations.
"The council violated the Minimum Wage Law which states that at least one third of representatives each from labor and management should be present at the final vote," they said at a press briefing before submitting the objection to the ministry.
"Also, the decision did not properly reflect employees' living costs."
The council ignored the income disparity that comes from workers' low salaries."
On basis of the objection, the ministry will review the case and announce a final decision by Aug. 5.
According to a public poll of 1,000 people conducted by the unions, 78.3 percent of respondents said that the next year's minimum wage is too low to narrow the nation's income disparity, and 63.3 percent agreed with the initial plan on the labor side to raise the minimum wage to 10,000 won.
