The ruling and opposition parties held a plenary session of the National Assembly on the 13th and passed 53 non-contentious bills. The amendment to the Aviation Security Act was voted down after many People Power Party lawmakers walked out in protest of Minister Kim Yun-duk of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport not attending the plenary chamber.
Among the 53 bills passed at the plenary session that day, a standout livelihood bill is the Act on the Development of the Living and Logistics Service Industry, aimed at resolving safety risks and employment instability for parcel delivery workers exposed to the danger of death from overwork.
The amendment mandates the use of consignment contracts drafted based on a standard contract form to reduce entrenched unfair practices in the parcel and delivery industries. It also requires platforms and outlets to verify that delivery workers have purchased paid transportation insurance and completed traffic safety education, and imposes fines for violations. It specifies a duty to make efforts to prevent inducing overwork or reckless driving.
The Framework Act on Residence to support people suffering in poor housing conditions such as semi-basement units was also passed. The amendment requires the government and local governments to provide rental housing to residents of vulnerable homes where safety or environmental problems are revealed through housing condition surveys or consultations at housing welfare centers, and to establish relocation measures that include housing cost and moving cost support. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will set detailed support standards and procedures by enforcement decree. The law takes effect on the day six months after promulgation.
The Act on the Promotion of Win-Win Cooperation between Large and Small and Medium Enterprises, which protects the rights and interests of small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners, was also approved. The bill expands the scope of the delivery unit price indexation system from raw materials to include energy rates such as electricity and gas, easing the burden on SMEs that use a lot of energy, such as mold making, casting, and welding. It also prohibits unlawful acts such as splitting transactions to evade the indexation system. It increases the number of commissioners on the commission for mediation of disputes between consignors and consignees and introduces a three-year exclusion period for investigations into consignor-consignee transactions to strengthen SMEs' ability to respond to disputes.
The Motor Vehicle Management Act to prevent electric vehicle fires was also passed. The amendment requires mandatory provision of key information such as the battery manufacturer and capacity when selling an electric vehicle. It also reintroduces regular inspections for large commercial trucks to prevent wheel separation accidents, and includes a requirement to obtain prior consent from the vehicle owner when selling a car owned by another person to prevent fraud in used-car transactions.
The amendment to the Aviation Security Act did not clear the threshold of the National Assembly plenary. Among 155 lawmakers present, 75 voted in favor, 45 against, and 35 abstained, and the bill was voted down. This was because many People Power Party lawmakers, including Kim Eun-hye and Bae Jun-young, who jointly proposed the bill, walked out of the plenary chamber in protest of Minister Kim Yun-duk of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport not attending the plenary. People Power Party lawmakers returned to the plenary chamber after bills under the jurisdiction of the Land Committee were handled, but the vote had already ended.
The amendment raises the penalty for violating mandatory aircraft security checks from "fines of up to 10 million won" to "a fine of up to 50 million won."