President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday renewed her calls for labor reform in her latest push to help create jobs and improve South Korea’s economy.
Labor reform “could give a big boost to the economy as a whole, including people with disabilities,” Park said in a luncheon meeting with more than a dozen medalists in last month’s International Abilympics held in France.
South Korea finished in first place with 14 gold medals, eight silver medals and two bronze medals at the world’s largest skills competition among people with disabilities. It marked the sixth straight year that South Korea has finished on top.
In September, labor, management and the government produced a landmark deal to ease labor restrictions. The deal would allow companies to dismiss workers who are either negligent or underperforming.
Still, parliament has yet to endorse the labor reform bills, despite repeated pleas by Park and the business community.
Park also vowed to raise a mandatory ratio for hiring people with disabilities and provide more assistance to companies, which hire people with disabilities.
Under the law, public companies are required to hire people with disabilities to make up at least 3 percent of their labor force. The mandatory ratio for private companies has been set at 2.7 percent since 2014, up from 2.5 percent in 2013, according to government data. (Yonhap)