hankyoreh

The committee for improving institutions and practices related to labor and management relations under the Economic

After 10 months of discussion about the proposed ratification of key conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO), South Korea’s Economic, Social and Labor Council (ESLC) ultimately failed to reach an agreement. Since the government’s efforts to legislate the key conventions prior to ratification have gotten nowhere in the National Assembly, there are expected to be increasing calls for the government to ratifying the conventions first.

Although the ESLC discussed agenda items related to the ratification of the ILO’s key conventions – which concern the right to organize and place a ban on forced labor – during the sixth meeting of its operating committee, it was “unable to reach an agreement.” The operating committee’s meeting was held in a conference room in Seoul’s Jongno District on May 20. “We’re planning to organize the results of its discussions thus far and report those results in the committee’s next meeting,” the ESLC said.

The meeting was attended by standing member Park Tae-ju, along with Lee Seong-gyeong, secretary-general of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU), representing labor; Kim Jun-dong, vice chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and Kim Yong-geun, vice chairman of the Korea Employers Federation (KEF), representing employers; and Lee Ho-seung, first vice minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and Lim Seo-jeong, vice minister of the Ministry of Employment and Labor, representing the government.

The ESLC began its discussion in July 2018 in the committee for improving institutions and practices related to labor and management relations, or the improvement committee for short. Twenty-five rounds of meetings were held over nine months amid skepticism about whether a deal could be reached in negotiations with employers about the issue of guaranteeing the basic rights of workers, and the meetings ended in April without an agreement.

Having accomplished little aside from confirming the divide between the contingents from labor and employers on the improvement committee, the public interest committee members submitted a draft agreement representing their own opinion in November 2018. Then on Apr. 15, they announced their position on ways to improve legal institutions and ratify the conventions in an attempt to lay the foundation for a compromise, but ultimately the gap between the two sides was too wide to be bridged.

In the end, the only choice apparently left to the administration of South Korean President Moon Jae-in – who pledged to ratify the conventions in his election campaign and then, after his election, named their ratification as one of the government’s chief goals – is to secure the approval of the National Assembly through the ratification of the conventions before codifying them in law.

“We’ll make our final attempt to reach an agreement on the general idea of ratifying the key conventions in a top-level meeting with FKTU Chairman Kim Ju-young, KEF Chairman Son Gyeong-sik, Deputy Prime Minister for Economy and Finance Hong Nam-ki, and Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Jae-gap. If that too fails, the government will have no choice but to send a motion of ratification and a revision of the Labor Union Act to the National Assembly,” said Lee Seung-uk, a professor at the law school at Ewha Womans University and a member of the improvement committee, in a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh.

By Jeon Jong-hwi, staff reporter

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