The People Power Party expressed opposition on the 10th, calling it "anachronistic," as the ruling party showed signs of pushing for a revision to the Distribution Industry Development Act that would mandate large retailers to close on public holidays.
Park Soo-young, the opposition party's secretary of the National Assembly's Strategy and Finance Committee, criticized the Democratic Party during a situation room meeting held at the National Assembly on the morning of that day, saying, "The Democratic Party plans to process a revision of the Distribution Industry Development Act that enforces large retailers to close on public holidays twice a month, which is an outdated regulatory reinforcement and an amendment to the law that shows a lack of understanding of the complex structure of the distribution industry."
Park criticized, "Currently, market district heads can decide whether to designate holidays or weekdays for the closure day, but this legislation seeks to take away that autonomy from local governments."
He continued, calling it "a typical divisive strategy," and stated, "It seems like the thinking is that as long as large retailers suffer a little, it's okay as long as they capture the votes of more traditional market merchants or self-employed individuals, but they do not understand the complex ecosystem of the distribution industry."
Park also pointed out, "What about the workers employed by large retailers? These are often ordinary mothers trying to contribute to household finances or young people just starting out in society, and large retailers provide many job opportunities for them. Regulating and making it difficult for large retailers ultimately makes life harder for ordinary people."
Earlier, Democratic Party lawmaker Oh Se-hee, who is a former president of the Small Business Association, recently stated that he plans to process a partial revision bill of the Distribution Industry Development Act that he proposed.
The proposed amendment primarily mandates local governments to set designated closure days for large retailers during public holidays. It is currently pending in the National Assembly's Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs, and Startups Committee.
In response, the Democratic Party is reportedly not actively discussing the processing of related bills at the current level of the party's policy committee.
However, the Democratic Party included the limitation of the mandatory closure days for large retailers to public holidays in the agenda of the livelihood consultation meeting held last March, leading to predictions that legislative efforts will be pursued in the future.