At the first parliamentary inspection of the Ministry of Employment and Labor(MOEL) by the Environment and Labor Committee of the 20th National Assembly held on September 26, the MOEL was accused of disrupting industrial peace at the workplaces by intervening in the labor relations through the performance-based wage system, collective agreement amendment orders, guidelines for fair personnel management, interpretation of employment rules and operation guidelines. Opposition lawmakers of the Committee criticized the MOEL of losing its administrative identity as the Ministry of Employment and Labor, but "acting like the Ministry of Employment and Employers".

The Committee members of the ruling Saenuri Party did not participate in the inspection of the MOEL following the boycott decision made by the Saenuri Party, except Ha Tae-kyung, the Committee Secretary of Saenuri Party. Outside of the government complex in Sejong City where the inspection was held, the workers of Kabul(KB) AutoTech and Yoosung Enterprise(YPR) gathered to demand the release of the truth that both companies committed union busting activities.

The People's Party lawmaker Kim Sam-hwa raised an allegation that from March this year the MOEL convened several rounds of meetings for the MOEL affiliated agencies and strategically pushed forward the performance-based wage system by producing a manual responding to the various scenarios. He also said that he asked the MOEL to provide him with the documents of such meetings, but he has not yet received them from the MOEL.

The Minju Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Yong-deuk denounced that the MOEL does not play any role in the mediation or arbitration of the on-going industrial actions caused by the introduction of the performance-based wage system but only repeats the stern punishment. He continued that what the MOEL rejected the dialogue demand proposed by the financial and public sector trade unions was wrong, " Should we rename the ministry as the Ministry of Employment and Employers instead", he said.

The Committee Chair Hong Young-pyo raised the problem on the recent press conference speech by Minister Lee Ki-kwon regarding the reorganization of the wage system, as Minister Lee connected the job and performance -based wage system as the stipulated legal obligations. He stressed that the parliament at the time(19th National Assembly) deliberated on the wage peak system, nothing related to the performance-based wage system.

Concerns were also raised in relation to the MOEL guidelines; the guidelines for fair personnel management, the interpretation of employment rules and operation guidelines, as these two guidelines will be used to dismiss the low performers which will do harm to the labor relations. The Minju Party of Korea lawmaker Han Jung-ae revealed a dismissal program of the low performers developed by a corporate group, and said that some companies already make use of the guidelines to avoid the legal responsibility by inducing the low performers to tender their voluntary resignations, without giving the opportunities for the low performers to build up their capacities.

Lawmakers of Lee Yong-deuk, Han Jung-ae, Song Ok-ju were also deeply concerned about the collective agreement amendment orders in the fact that in the past 3 years the MOEL recommended only 28 voluntary collective agreement amendments , but up until June this year it did 1,503 amendment recommendations.

In the meantime, Saenuri Party lawmaker Ha Tae-kyung said that the amendment order for the illicit collective agreement provisions such as 'hereditary employment succession' should be expanded and the punishment should be further strengthened. He added, however, that only the special recruitment incentives for the family members of the industrial accident victims can be considered in a forward looking manner.

While lawmaker Lee Sang-don of the People's Party said that the MOEL should not be in favor of the trade unions nor it should represent the interests of the employers, he criticized that the MOEL is pursuing the policy supporting the employers' demand for the labor flexibility that he said doubts the identity of the MOEL.

reported by Kim Bong-suk
edited in English by Kim Sung-jin

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