Presidential candidates seeking to reduce working hours
Small firms criticize them as ‘populist’ pledge
By Lee Kyung-min
Five leading presidential candidates are seeking to reduce the current 68 hour-a-week working hours set by the government. But their plan is drawing a backlash mostly from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as they will need to bear the burdens for further holidays and extra pay.
Many of them complain such a “populist” campaign pledge will force them to shut down their businesses due to uncontrollable labor costs.
Frontrunner Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party of Korea and Hong Joon-pyo of the conservative Liberty Korea Party both pledged they would reduce working hours to 52 a week.
Yoo Seong-min of the Bareun Party agreed to the reduction of hours in general but plans to put a yearly cap on working hours.
Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party is seeking to adopt 1,800-hours-a-year working hour limit. Justice Party candidate Sim Sang-jung opting for 35 hours a week.
The Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business said their pledges simply fail to reflect the reality.
“Most SME workers have to work overtime to meet the deadline to supply our products,” the group said.
“If the hours are reduced, then the firms will have to hire new workers, which would definitely increase operating costs. This is a serious burden to SMEs as the young people favor large conglomerates and shun working for SMEs,” it added.
Labor reform and reducing working hours have been a thorny issue over which no compromise is easily reached, the group said.
“Representatives of the government, labor and business have continued to struggle since 2012 as they could not find amicable solutions to such a complex issue. Presidential candidates railroading the issue without careful consideration won’t help,” the group added.
According to the 2016 employment outlook report of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Koreans worked 2,113 hours a year on average, the second-most among the 34 OECD members after Mexico (2,246 hours).
Given the government mandate that daily working hours not exceed eight hours, Koreans worked 43 more days than the average OECD workers, the report said.