Workers hit by work hour reduction

By Jung Da-min

Many workers in manufacturing and services fear their income will decline, come July when workers will be restricted to working 52 hours per week.

While some workers express hope over more leisurely evenings and a finer balance between work and life, employees in manufacturing are concerned that the actual wages they will earn will decrease. Many employed by small-and medium-sized enterprises will lose their extra pay for overtime work, which accounts for as much as their base salary.

In February, the National Assembly Committee on the Environment and Labor passed the revised bill which includes Saturdays and Sundays within the scope of a working week. The maximum working hours had been 68 hours.

After the bill passed, hundreds of workers from small-and-medium enterprises began flooding the Cheong Wa Dae website with petitions.

“I understand it is good to have a life with evenings and weekends,” said a petitioner.

“Although the minimum wage has risen, we, long-term employed manufacturing workers, did not benefit from it. Would you enjoy the evenings and weekends when you want to cry right away, with reduced income?”

According to the Korea Labor Institute, about 409,000 employees in manufacturing are working more than 52 hours a week. They are paid time-and-a-half for an average of 21.4 hours of overtime a week. If the maximum overtime hours are reduced to 12 hours from the previous 28 hours, the average loss of salary for a worker is estimated to be 388,000 won per month, about a 13 percent decrease.

“It (the reduction of working hours) means that people now have to work two, three or four extra jobs,” another petitioner said. “Now we cannot dream of any leisure time.”

Manufacturing workers said that they should have the freedom to choose their own working hours, or the government should present alternative solutions for small- and medium-size enterprises.

A union said the current move to reduce working hours is in the right direction as long as the companies guarantee the same wage.

“Working hours should be reduced,” said a spokesman from the Korean Metal Workers' Union. “No one would say they do not welcome reduced working hours but it is just that companies are not in favor of it, because they have to pay more.”