The Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) said on the 28th that it will pay a "fairness allowance" to nonregular workers at public institutions and local governments. At contract expiration, it will pay 8.5%–10% of the baseline amount as an allowance depending on the length of service. The aim is to narrow the wage gap between regular and nonregular workers.
The fairness allowance is a policy first introduced among local governments by President Lee Jae-myung in 2021 when serving as Gyeonggi governor and has been implemented to this day. Since the launch of the current administration, not a few of the policies pursued by ministries are expansions of policies Lee carried out as Gyeonggi governor.
Inside and outside government circles, policies implemented with the launch of Gyeonggi's "Fairness Bureau" in 2019 are drawing attention. That is because Lee tends to reflect in national governance the policies he focused on pushing at the Fairness Bureau. Representative examples include clearing illegal facilities along rivers and valleys, surveying and strengthening sanctions on economic crimes such as collusion, and launching an organization dedicated to managing tax delinquents.
◇ "river and valley cleanup" "stronger sanctions on collusion" "delinquent management unit"... launched at Gyeonggi's Fairness Bureau
Lee created the Fairness Bureau in June 2019, the year after taking office as Gyeonggi governor. Among local governments nationwide, Gyeonggi was the first to establish a bureau-level organization dedicated to fair transaction and consumer protection. Under the Fairness Bureau, it placed ▲ the Fair Consumption Division ▲ the Tax Justice Division ▲ the Special Judicial Police Unit (special judicial police). Appointing a lawyer specializing in fair trade as the Fairness Bureau chief became a hot topic.
One of the Fairness Bureau's major achievements is clearing illegal facilities along rivers and valleys. As Gyeonggi governor, Lee pledged to return clean valleys to residents and in 2019 launched a sweeping fact-finding and cleanup. A year later, he said 1,482 illegal facilities along valleys and rivers had been uncovered and 94% were removed. Cleaning up illegal facilities along rivers and valleys became one of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's major policies after Lee took office. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) is confirming illegal acts through nationwide fact-finding and imposing sanctions.
While serving as governor, Lee waged a "war on collusion." In particular, the province established and implemented a plan to strengthen sanctions so that corporations caught colluding in bidding for construction projects ordered by the province could not participate in future public projects and would be excluded from policy funding support. After taking office, Lee also emphasized stern punishment for colluding corporations at Cabinet meetings, senior secretaries' meetings, and on X (formerly Twitter).
At the Feb. 19 Cabinet meeting, Lee said, "Collusion is a cancerous presence that hinders national economic development," adding, "If it is repeated, we should actively consider permanently expelling them from the market." Accordingly, under the current administration, large-scale investigations and sanctions by prosecutors and the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) against collusion by food and other corporations have followed. The FTC revised its internal penalty surcharge notice, raising the lower limit for collusion-related penalty surcharges from 0.5% to 10% of relevant sales, a 20-fold increase.
The "national tax delinquent management unit" launched under this administration is also a policy Lee pursued at Gyeonggi's Fairness Bureau. Under the Fairness Bureau's Tax Justice Division, more than 1,000 fixed-term public officials were hired to check on delinquent taxpayers' situations. However, some point out that the annual amount collected from delinquents did not change significantly before and after the unit's introduction. At the Cabinet meeting on the 28th, Lee said, "If we spend 500 billion won to hire 10,000 people and collect an additional 10 trillion won, that would leave us with a hefty surplus."
◇ Lee well versed in fair transaction... civil servants on high alert
A civil servant at a government ministry said, "The president appears to be trying to reflect in national governance the experience of resolving fair transaction issues and boosting approval ratings while serving as a local government head." Employees at the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) are on edge at the emergence of a president well versed in the Fair Trade Act and fair transaction issues.
Previously, a situation was publicly displayed in which Lee pressed Chairperson Ju Biung-ghi over the low level of sanctions in fair transaction cases. At the Feb. 3 Cabinet meeting, Lee mentioned the bid-rigging case involving gas-insulated switchgear ordered by Korea Electric Power Corporation, saying, "The scale of collusion exceeds 600 billion won, but the penalty surcharge is not even 50 billion won." He then said, "By law, (the penalty surcharge relative to the collusion amount can be imposed at) up to 20% of sales, so why was it set so low?"
When Ju said it was due to mitigation provisions in the enforcement decree and notices, Lee said, "If so, we should fix the rules first." When Ju said the revision would be made in the first half of the year, Lee said, "Why not do it right now?"