Sohn Kyung-shik, chair of the Korea Enterprises Federation, said, "Recently, major labor unions at Korea's leading corporations are demanding excessively high performance bonuses," and added, "Given that most are high-wage corporations, such unreasonable demands are highly likely to not only worsen labor-management relations, but also undermine corporations' long-term growth engines and widen wage gaps."
On June 10 (local time), Sohn attended the 144th International Labour Organization (ILO) conference in Geneva, Switzerland, as the representative of Korea's business community and said, "To fully harness the benefits of AI advancement and address the challenges efficiently, cooperative labor-management relations are necessary."
Sohn believes that corporations should make every effort to ensure employment stability, and unions should refrain from excessive demands, making cooperative labor-management relations in which both sides "win-win" essential. He also said, "Social dialogue that imposes burdens on only one side can never be sustainable," and emphasized, "Social dialogue should focus on supporting corporations' innovation and on labor market transitions to prepare for the AI era."
Sohn also said, "To further improve humanity's quality of life, we must create an environment that spreads strong entrepreneurship for AI (artificial intelligence) innovation." To that end, all countries need to improve outdated laws and systems that do not fit the paradigm of the times, and in Korea's case, Sohn believes it is urgent to flexibly ease overly rigid labor market regulations, such as strong protections for regular workers and uniform working-hour systems.
Sohn stressed that labor market transitions driven by AI technological innovation must also be supported. He explained, "Policies such as infrastructure support and expanded vocational training that enable corporations and workers to adapt successfully and maintain competitiveness in the new AI environment need to be strengthened."
The 114th ILO conference, held from on the 1st and running through the 12th, brings together representatives of labor, management, and government from 187 member states to discuss the status of implementation of members' conventions and recommendations, the establishment of international labor standards related to the platform economy, social dialogue, and gender equality.