Retail giant E-mart’s decision to convert 10,000 temporary workers into permanent staff may be the best news that the labor market has heard in years. And it shows how much difference one president can make for so many workers.
The move by the nation’s largest discount chain came right after the labor ministry ruled that the retailer hired and used 1,978 workers dispatched by a referral agency in illegal ways, and threatened to
fines of 10 million won per worker each month until it
ies the irregularity.
This is the same labor ministry which looked the other way when the same company
ed unionists over the past five years under a different President. The conversion is a belated but welcome move but the government’s auditors should investigate allegations that the ministry also knew but ignored the unlawful hiring practices for years.
Also noticeable is that the Shinsegae Group came up with the decision following a similar one taken by Hanwha Group, another family-controlled conglomerate. The two chaebol groups have one thing in common: their owners have either been
ed or are under police probes for financial and labor-related violations. Few Koreans doubt that the tycoons’ troubles are related with President Park Geun-hye’s strong policy to tame chaebol.
We hope President Park will continue to keep her pledge not to allow any exception from fair and equal enforcement of the law. She should not follow in the footsteps of her predecessors, most of whom started with anti-chaebol policies but ended up compromising with the corporate behemoths, which together account for more than half of Korea’s gross domestic product. If only she can make the industrial giants faithfully abide by the law, numerous smaller firms will breathe far more easily.
E-mart’s latest move will incur additional labor cost of 60 billion won a year, or 7.7 percent of its net profits of 776 billion won, while raising its employees’ annual income by 27 percent. This is a worthy investment because the workers are certain to repay with corresponding productivity growth and improved work discipline.
Corporate use of temporary workers and dispatched labor is a universal trend to meet with rapidly changing industrial climate. So the new government’s task is to narrow the excessive income gap between temporary and
workers here and tighten the restrictions of this irregular employment practice by drawling a clearer line between acts that are allowable and those that are not.
The ongoing change in the domestic employment market is a move in the right direction, but is only a small beginning toward realizing President Park’s promise to make a “happy Korea.”
This is The Korea Times editorial for Thursday, March 7, 2013.
1. In order to encourage exportation and discourage importation, the government must
import taxes.
① allow
② place
③ exempt
④ omit
2. A longer war would hurt the U.S. at home,
racial tensions because of the disproportionate number of blacks in the front lines.
① alleviating
② extinguishing
③ rectifying
④ aggravating
3.This, of course, helped to
depositors, who might otherwise have
panicked.
① oppress
② oppose
③ storm
④ tranquillize
4. After a trial which lasted five weeks, the defendant was
of all charges.
① convicted
② told
③ imprisoned
④ absolved
5. In the aftermath of World War Ⅱ and the Nuremberg tribunal, the idea arose of creating a permanent international criminal court that could try the most
international criminals.
① shocking and immoral
② impotent and helpless
③ awkward and famous
④ chivalrous and notorious
1. [번역] 수출을 장려하고 수입을 억제하기 위해, 정부는 수입세를
.
[정답] ②
2. [번역] 전쟁이 보다 장기화되면 전선에 투입된 (백인에 대해) 불균형적으로 흑인들의 수가 많음으로 하여 인종간의 긴장을 더욱
것이고, 이는 국내적으로 미국에 해로울 것이다.
[정답] ④
3. [번역] 이것은, 물론, 그게 아니었더라면 공포에 사로잡힐 수도 있었을 예금자들을
도움이 되었다.
4. [번역] 5주간 지속된 재판이 있고 난 다음, 그 피고인은 모든 혐의를
[어휘] exonerate 무죄임을 입증하다(exculpate); (의무, 책임, 비난 등을) 면제하다(absolve, release, free)
① 유죄를 선고하다 ③ 투옥시키다
5. [번역] 제2차 세계대전과 뉘른베르크 재판 직후에 가장
국제 범죄자를 재판할 수 있는 영구적인 국제 범죄 재판소를 세워야 한다는 견해가 제기되었다.
[정답] ①