Korea seeks to shorten hours to create jobs

Employers’ group hits back at move, says plan will increase labor costs and depress wages


The government is aiming to shorten working hours in a bid to create more jobs and improve workers’ quality of life. 

President Lee Myung-bak on Wednesday directed his staff to come up with measures to reduce labor hours, starting with large conglomerates that tower over the local economy.

“Shortened hours have many positive impacts on our society, such as improving lifestyles, creating new jobs and boosting private consumption,” he said.

His remarks come as the government pushes to end the country’s ingrained culture of long working hours. The hard-work culture, a key driver behind Korea’s miraculous transformation from rags to riches, is failing to translate into high productivity, Seoul officials said, while the economy is creating fewer and fewer new jobs.

Labor Minister Lee Chae-pil said his ministry would revise laws to restrict weekend work.

“I plan to include weekend and holiday work in the calculation of overtime in order to end the long working hours practices once and for all,” he said in a media interview.

Currently, the statutory limit on weekly hours is 40 hours of regular work plus 12 hours of overtime. The rule, however, does not apply to weekend or holiday work, so it is not illegal to have an employee work 52 hours during the five working days and eight hours each on Saturday and Sunday.

Lee said such a change could help distribute jobs to more people and improve the health and lifestyles of workers.

“Last year, we found about 500 workplaces in violation of the working hour limits and had them correct the practices. About 5,200 new jobs were created as a result,” the minister said.

The Korea Employers’ Federation reacted angrily to the plan, branding it unrealistic.

It said local companies have been managing their workers based on the current practice that allows weekend and holiday work on top of 12 hours of overtime. A change in this would lead to increased labor costs for companies and reduced pay for workers, it said.

“Such a drastic reduction of working hours, with no regard to the reality, will cause serious unwanted impact on industries,” it warned in a press statement.

Korean workers put in 2,111 hours in 2010 on average, the most among countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)