16 Lawmakers Join Job-Sharing Campaign
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
A group of 16 governing Grand National Party (GNP) lawmakers Thursday joined a job-sharing campaign by pledging to donate 10 percent of their paychecks every month for job creation.
They made the pledge two months after Chairman Chung Sye-kyun of the largest opposition Democratic Party (DP) called on all legislators to contribute the same portion of their monthly salaries to help working-class families affected by the economic downturn.
``Now is the time for Assembly members to do their part by taking specific action. And we can do this by contributing 10 percent of our monthly salaries to the campaign,'' said Chung. The DP chairman, however, didn't give the details of how their monetary contribution will be used.
Initially, Chung's call did not receive strong support from either the ruling or opposition parties.
However, the GNP lawmakers' declaration of their joining the job-sharing campaign rekindled his call.
GNP lawmaker Kim Jung-hoon said that 16 ruling party lawmakers whose electoral districts are based in Busan, Mayor of Busan Hur Nam-sik and heads of municipal districts agreed to contribute 10 percent of their paychecks for sharing jobs in a previous meeting.
``If all high-ranking officials of the city government and local representatives join the campaign, approximately 1.2 billion won will be collected to be used for the purpose of creating more jobs,'' said the lawmaker.
Kim said he plans to ask Prime Minister Han Seung-soo, other Cabinet ministers, and heads and executives of state-run firms to join the pain-sharing campaign during an interpellation session to be held Friday.
Earlier, President Lee Myung-bak directed Cabinet ministers to come up with a specific implementation plan for job-sharing, which he proposed as a means to curb unemployment.
Several state-run firms began reviewing the plan to cut starting salaries of entry-level employees so as to hire more people this year.
Labor experts say employers and employees can create more jobs by cutting their paychecks, reducing working hours and introducing other measures, such as setting an upper income limit.