By Kim Rahn
Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan's labor reform scheme is facing opposition from other state-run organizations, especially in relation to issues about dismissing regular workers and offering non-regular workers full-time jobs.
While Choi is moving to make it easier to lay off regular employees citing the inflexibility of Korea's labor market, some other agencies are opposed to the idea and stressing job protection.
The problems come weeks before the government announces measures to protect temporary workers. The announcement is due this month.
Economic and Social Development Commission Chairman Kim Dae-hwan criticized Choi's remarks about bringing flexibility to the labor market through measures, including easier layoffs of regular workers.
"Easing layoffs is not a right direction we should follow, and now is not the time to discuss such a thing. It should be the last thing to consider (in bringing flexibility)," Kim said in a radio interview on Sunday.
"Before layoffs, the nation should take other steps for flexibility, such as changing wage structures or readjusting working hours. I've met people from business, and it seems not everybody agrees with Choi's ideas."
He also criticized another government plan to oblige companies to change non-regular workers into regular ones after three years of continuous service. It is now two years.
"Extending the period from two to three years will not help strengthen non-regular workers' job security," Kim said. "Those engaged in permanent services should have regular worker status. Makeshift policies will not help attain the original goal of creating a fairer labor market."
Instead of extending contracts for temporary workers, Kim said the government should think of how to abolish discrimination against them.
"The government should not announce and carry out policies unilaterally," he said. "Labor policies should be fully discussed at the commission. If the government announces its stance first, it is difficult for an agreement to be reached at the tripartite discussion."
The National Human Rights Commission also said on Monday that it had recommended that the labor and education ministries switch the status of their temporary workers to regular ones if their services were constant.
It also told the ministries to ease standards for "constant" positions to allow more non-regular workers to get regular status.
"The public sector's protection of non-regular employees will set an example for the private sector," it said.
Kim and the human rights watchdog are directly opposed to Choi's plans. The finance minister said at a seminar last week that businesses were reluctant to employ new regular workers because they then would have to guarantee employment until retirement age.
Employment and Labor Minister Lee Ki-kweon agreed with Choi.
After meeting foreign company chiefs here, Lee said on Nov. 19 on his Facebook page that those chiefs believed Korea's labor market was inflexible compared to those of other countries.
"Many foreign companies say they want to invest in Korea but worry about labor disputes," he said.
Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan's labor reform scheme is facing opposition from other state-run organizations, especially in relation to issues about dismissing regular workers and offering non-regular workers full-time jobs.
While Choi is moving to make it easier to lay off regular employees citing the inflexibility of Korea's labor market, some other agencies are opposed to the idea and stressing job protection.
The problems come weeks before the government announces measures to protect temporary workers. The announcement is due this month.
Economic and Social Development Commission Chairman Kim Dae-hwan criticized Choi's remarks about bringing flexibility to the labor market through measures, including easier layoffs of regular workers.
"Easing layoffs is not a right direction we should follow, and now is not the time to discuss such a thing. It should be the last thing to consider (in bringing flexibility)," Kim said in a radio interview on Sunday.
"Before layoffs, the nation should take other steps for flexibility, such as changing wage structures or readjusting working hours. I've met people from business, and it seems not everybody agrees with Choi's ideas."
He also criticized another government plan to oblige companies to change non-regular workers into regular ones after three years of continuous service. It is now two years.
"Extending the period from two to three years will not help strengthen non-regular workers' job security," Kim said. "Those engaged in permanent services should have regular worker status. Makeshift policies will not help attain the original goal of creating a fairer labor market."
Instead of extending contracts for temporary workers, Kim said the government should think of how to abolish discrimination against them.
"The government should not announce and carry out policies unilaterally," he said. "Labor policies should be fully discussed at the commission. If the government announces its stance first, it is difficult for an agreement to be reached at the tripartite discussion."
The National Human Rights Commission also said on Monday that it had recommended that the labor and education ministries switch the status of their temporary workers to regular ones if their services were constant.
It also told the ministries to ease standards for "constant" positions to allow more non-regular workers to get regular status.
"The public sector's protection of non-regular employees will set an example for the private sector," it said.
Kim and the human rights watchdog are directly opposed to Choi's plans. The finance minister said at a seminar last week that businesses were reluctant to employ new regular workers because they then would have to guarantee employment until retirement age.
Employment and Labor Minister Lee Ki-kweon agreed with Choi.
After meeting foreign company chiefs here, Lee said on Nov. 19 on his Facebook page that those chiefs believed Korea's labor market was inflexible compared to those of other countries.
"Many foreign companies say they want to invest in Korea but worry about labor disputes," he said.
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