By Bae Ji-sook
From July next year, workers will be able to take more days off with their accumulated extra-working hours or conversely, work extra hours to make up for taking longer holidays, the Ministry of Employment and Labor said Tuesday.
Those willing to work after retirement will be able to do so by accepting a wage peak system — workers will have to brace for a pay cut from a certain age in return for job security.
The set of long-term job-boosting measures, approved during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, aims to bring up the employment rate to 70 percent by 2020, the level seen in developed nations. Currently, the employment rate for those aged 15-64 stands at 62.9 percent.
With the unemployment rate soaring despite an improving economy, policymakers have decided to encourage companies to hire youths, married women with children and elderly people by subsidizing them.
From July, all salaried workers are guaranteed 40 hours-a-week working hours.
Female workers who wish to take maternity leave will receive a special subsidy according to their salary amounts. Flexible working hours for working mothers will be guaranteed and their salaries will also be partially supported by the state.
In order to create more jobs, the government has decided to allow newly-established companies to hire temporary workers for more than two years without renewal of contract. Currently, companies are obliged to renew the employment contract of a non-permanent worker to a permanent one, should an non-regular worker work at the same company for more than two years.
“We acknowledge that job creation can take place only when private companies and the government cooperate. We will also strive to monitor the youth employment status,” Labor Minister Bahk Jae-wan said.
However, the ambitious plan received a lukewarm reaction from both conservative and liberal activists. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions said the program may create “bad jobs.”
“The plan allows more temporary or non-permanent jobs instead of regular ones. It gives good excuses for businessmen to hire people on lower salaries and with poorer benefits,” said the group spokesman Park Sung-shik.
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