III. Working Condition and Discrimination 1:
General Issues
1.
Labour Rights Threatened by Business Friendly Policies (170-171)
31. Government’s policy orientation to increase labour flexibility and hence create a
business-friendly environment takes the form of policies alleviating Labor Law
provisions on the protection of workers.
32. The revision of the Non-regular Workers’ Act that enables the extension of the
employment period of non-regular workers is a good example of such policy.
Government’s correction order or unilateral termination of previous collective
agreement in the public sector is threatening the business-pacific role of collective
agreements concluded through the principle of labour-management self-regulation and
is causing unnecessary conflicts.
33. On the other hand, in the name of a rise in employment proliferating policy that
promotes unstable jobs is on the contrary becoming a concerning issue. The public
sectors advancement plan linked to the public sector summed up a fixed reduction of
man power. This instatement of this reduction introduced temporary employment,
however it switched good quality regular employment jobs into low income non regular
employment jobs and has caused a greater gap in polarity in the labour market.
34. Additionally, the readjustment of minimum wage assessment standard, the increase
of temporary agency workers, the enforcement of prohibition of allowances to full-time
trade union officials, the enforcement of unification of negotiation party in case of
multiple trade unions, and the alleviation of laws limiting dismissal are further expected.
2. Excessive Application of Criminal Punishment Against Striking Workers
(176-177)
35. Labour actions during trade disputes such as strike is in reality limited by the
Criminal Code, the Assembly and Demonstration Act or the Punishment of Violence Act,
even though the right to collective action is guaranteed under the Article 33 of the
Constitution of the Republic of Korea.
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