The Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise (KFME) held a meeting with the leadership of the People Power Party, including leader Jang Dong-hyeok, on Nov. 12 at the KFME conference room in Yeouido, Seoul, and conveyed small-business issues such as building a social safety net for small businesses.
Attending the meeting were People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok, policy chief Kim Do-eup, National Assembly Political Affairs Committee chair Yoon Han-hong, Strategy and Finance Committee chair Lim Lee-ja, and Trade, Industry, SMEs and Startups Committee chair Lee Cheol-gyu, while from the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise (KFME), President Song Chi-young and the executive board were present.
In his greeting, President Song Chi-young said, "With the number of business closures exceeding 1 million last year, there is even analysis that this figure will be surpassed this year," lamenting the reality of small businesses in crisis due to sluggish domestic demand.
Song in particular cited labor's demands for a 4.5-day workweek and calls to ban dawn delivery, emphasizing, "Due to labor's excessive demands and the resulting changes in employment policy, small businesses, the 'weakest of the weak,' are feeling great anxiety." He then urged the National Assembly to step up and actively represent the position of small businesses.
Song said, "If weekly holiday pay is maintained and there is discussion of expanding the application of the Labor Standards Act to establishments with fewer than five employees, and a 4.5-day workweek is implemented on top of that, labor costs could surge by more than double, collapsing the small-business ecosystem." Song then delivered the industry's demands to the People Power Party, including opposition to the 4.5-day workweek, abolition of weekly holiday pay, and withdrawal of the plan to apply the Labor Standards Act to establishments with fewer than five employees.
At the meeting, the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise (KFME) proposed the "10 key policy tasks for small businesses," aimed at overcoming the crisis for small businesses and restoring the ladder of growth, including: building a social safety net for small businesses; improving the minimum wage system; expanding the income deduction rate for small-business establishments; supporting digital and AI transition for small businesses; expanding support for small businesses that close; building a customized credit evaluation model; improving unfair platform transaction practices; opposing the expanded application of the Labor Standards Act to establishments with fewer than five employees; streamlining the policy delivery system for small businesses; and establishing a KFME policy research institute.