A majority of South Korean companies are under pressure from a bill to cut their employees’ working hours, which ranked high among a group of advanced countries, a poll showed Monday.
According to the survey of 503 companies by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, most companies polled worried that, with the reduced working hours, they will fail to meet the deadline to deliver goods to their clients.
The South Korean government and the ruling party are seeking to push for a bill aimed at reducing the maximum working hours per week to 52 hours in 2016 from the current 68 hours.
The companies said that the government should either delay implementing reduced hours or introduce varied requirements depending on the size of the companies.
Of those polled, 55 percent said that the bill to reduce the working time should be implemented after 2016, with 22.7 percent saying that it should take effect starting 2016.
According to a 2013 ranking by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, South Koreans’ annual average working time reached 2,090 hours in 2011, the second most among the OECD member countries. Mexicans worked the longest hours per year on average in 2011.
A report by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance in September last year said South Korea’s average weekly working hours of 44.6 hours ranked the highest among the advanced countries, while its average annual income level did not match up to the long hours. (Yonhap News)
