Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said on the 23rd that the amendment to Articles 2 and 3 of the Labor Union Act, known as the 'yellow envelope law,' has been submitted to the National Assembly plenary session, calling for the immediate withdrawal of the 'youth sacrifice law.'
On that day, Mayor Oh posted on Facebook an article titled 'Youth sacrifice law, KCTU reward law,' stating that 'the number of 'resting youth' in their 20s who are neither working nor looking for a job has reached a record high of 420,000,' adding, 'Young people are asking our society, where exactly are our opportunities?' He also wrote, 'Ignoring the cries of these young people, the government and ruling party have signaled the passage of the yellow envelope law,' criticizing it as 'politics that thoroughly caters only to KCTU's vested interests.'
He argued, 'Our country's system is already rigid,' adding, 'Once hired, it's difficult to fire employees, so corporations evade risk by relying on non-regular workers and subcontracting.' He continued, 'In order to respond flexibly to changing economic conditions and levels of technological advancement, corporations find it rational to employ regular workers only to a limited extent and replace the rest with non-regular workers and subcontractors.' He pointed out that 'ultimately, only those who have already entered vested interests are protected, while young people seeking to enter the job market must navigate an employment war akin to threading a needle.'
Mayor Oh stated, 'If the yellow envelope law passes, corporations will not only move beyond subcontracting issues but will leave Korea entirely, and foreign companies will not even come to this country.' He added, 'This could fundamentally dry up job opportunities,' noting that 'if things continue like this, the number of 'resting youth' could rise from 420,000 to 1 million,' and expressed hope that the 'economic malfeasance law' that robs the future of young people would be immediately repealed.
In a conversation on the 21st with Nobel Prize-winning economist James Robinson from the University of Chicago, he also remarked regarding the yellow envelope law that 'it is clear it will be accompanied by side effects that erode corporate competitiveness and turn young people's job opportunities into something as narrow as a needle's eye.'
After the Ministry of Employment and Labor rebutted, saying, 'This is not a law that condones or exempts illegal strikes,' Mayor Oh's side responded, 'They are deceiving the public by parroting the one-sided claims of vested interest unions like a parrot.'