1008-Weekly work hours to be cut

                 
The government and the ruling party agreed Monday to reduce the maximum permissible weekly working hours for employees from the current 68 hours to 52. Implementation of the new work system will begin in 2016.
The Saenuri Party and the Ministry of Employment and Labor held a meeting at the National Assembly and decided to revise the current Labor Standards Law to keep President Park Geun-hye’s election promise of reducing working hours and raising the employment rate to 70 percent.
The revision states that regular work hours on weekdays should not exceed 40; while overtime is limited to a maximum 12 hours.
Contrary to earlier speculation, the new plan includes work on Saturdays and Sundays as overtime.
The government expects that it will create more part-time jobs, helping to meet Park’s election pledge during her campaign last year.
The two also agreed to impose the new regulations gradually from 2016 according to company size.
Companies with more than 1,000 employees must comply with the rule from 2016, those with 100 to 1,000 from 2017, and firms with less than 100 workers from 2018.
“Both the ruling and main opposition parties are actively working to cut the weekly working hours,” said Rep. Kim Sung-tae of the Saenuri Party.
During the meeting, the two sides also decided to consider raising the minimum wage after the 52-hour rule goes into effect.
However, complaints from small- and medium-sized companies are anticipated, as the plan could add costs for firms in hiring extra part-timers.
They also argue that it will create short-term non-regular workers only, which will lower their productivity.
Critics point out that the revision may ease employees’ extra workload, but it does not solve the country’s youth unemployment problem as it only raises the employment rate temporarily by hiring more part-timers.
The working hours of Korean employees are among the longest within OECD member states — 2,193 hours per year as of 2010 outpacing the OECD average of 1,749.