Ministry releases final labor reform guidelines

The Employment and Labor Ministry on Friday released the final version of its employment guidelines, which include allowing companies to lay off underperforming workers, drawing vehement opposition from the labor unions.

The ministry, which had revealed its draft version last month, said that companies will be allowed to fire workers that have shown “extremely” low job performance or capacity to an extent that they “burden their colleagues.” They will first be given a chance to redeem themselves through training and relocation of job posts, the ministry said.

“The guidelines will stabilize the workers’ employment by enabling compensation based on ability and performance, while the businesses will expand hiring of regular workers and reduce irregular workers, thereby contributing to the creation of high-quality jobs for youth,” Labor Minister Lee Ki-kweon said in a press conference.

To secure a fair evaluation, the assessment will be carried out with standards set by the company and relevant labor unions or workers’ representatives.

The guidelines also state that companies will be able to change employment rules without due consent from laborers in cases where changes are “deemed reasonable.” It said such cases will be determined based on whether the existing system disadvantages the employees or when there is a need to change the system to reflect the overall industry, after ample efforts to discuss the issue with labor. The ministry deemed it crucial to allow such leeway for businesses in order to introduce its flagship “peak wage” system that reduces the salaries of workers over a certain age in exchange for lifting the age of retirement.

The nation’s two large umbrella unions slammed the announcement, which they said had no legal grounds.

“We strongly demand the government immediately discard the guidelines that deepen employment instability and aggravate the working conditions of the laborers,” the Federation of Korean Trade Unions responded.

FKTU has been vowing an all-out war against the government’s labor reform moves after withdrawing from last year’s tripartite deal citing the administration’s lack of will to compromise. Their move was stoked by the ministry’s unilateral release of the draft guidelines on Dec. 30 that they claimed was a breach of their agreement. The government, for their part, contends that the labor union has repeatedly denied their offer to follow-up talks.

“No matter how much the government argues that the guidelines are not aimed at easier layoffs, enabling (companies) to fire underperforming workers based on government guidelines alone is providing them another way to make easier layoffs,” they said.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions also held a press conference denouncing the ministry later in the day. (khnews@heraldcorp.com)