The government will put forward the measures to limit the use of contract workers through the revision of the Act on the Protection of Fixed-term and Part-time Employees and the Act on the Protection of Dispatched Workers by the first half of next year. Permanent and continuing nature of jobs and jobs related to life and safety will be regulated to be regular ones. It will concentrate on the social dialogue before laying out 'the basic plan for the society respecting labor'.
The Presidential Committee on Job Creation held its 3rd meeting presided over by President Moon Jae-in at the Heyground building, a cooperative working space for start-ups, in Seongsu-dong, eastern Seoul on October 18 and adopted 'a five-year road map for job creation policy'. While saying that "the job creation policy will be pursued in earnest," President Moon stressed that "the public sector should play a priming water role to lead the private sector employment market and provide the adequate public services required by the people".
The road map comprises five major categories: △establishing job creation infrastructure(22 tasks), △creating jobs in the public sector(7 tasks), △creating jobs in the private sector(41 tasks), △improving the job quality(14 tasks) and △supporting the jobs for the specific groups.
The government plans to complete the implementation of the road map before the presidency for President Moon finishes in 2022, after setting up the institutional improvement measures in relation to 100 tasks identified by the second half of this year or early next year. Among the laws under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Employment and Labor, 12 of them such as the Labor Standards Act, Act on the Protection of Fixed-term Employees, Act on the Protection of Dispatched Workers, Occupational Safety and Health Act will be amended. The labor-related laws will be greatly expanded through the enactment of the laws to protect emotional workers and to improve the employment of domestic workers.
The tasks to improve the quality of jobs are focused on the prevention of overuse of contract workers and the solution of discrimination in employment. The most noticeable measure is to regulate the use of contract workers from the very beginning of the recruitment process. Based on the principle that permanent and continuing nature of jobs and jobs related to life and safety will be regular jobs, only legitimate reasons such as seasonal causes, pregnancy, childbirth and child rearing will be allowed for contract jobs. It is reported that the list of permissible contract jobs will be provided in the related law. In particular, jobs directly related to life and safety shall not be carried out by fixed-term or dispatched workers. The amendment bill will be unveiled in the first half of next year.
The laws and institutions for the protection of subcontracted workers and the guarantee of basic labor rights for the workers who are specifically employed such as home-study tutors and courier or quick service workers will be reviewed. A survey will be conducted to know the situation on the subcontracted workers by next year and work out measures to reduce the wage gap between the workers of prime contractors and subcontractors. Unpaid wages and adequate level of wages for subcontracted workers and the responsibility of prime contractors for the safety management are expected to be the focal points. The legal and institutional measures to guarantee the basic labor rights for the specifically employed workers will be taken for the improvement, following a survey on their situation this year. The plan will also support the trans-enterprise unit negotiations to expand the participatory path for the voices of contract workers.
The Presidential Committee on Job Creation also adopted a resolution on 'the measures to invigorate the social economy' to resolve the problems of jobs, social polarization and aging society.
reported by Bae Hye-jung
translated by Kim Sung-jin