The Samsung Electronics union said on the 20th it failed to reach a deal with management and will go on a general strike on the 21st as planned. Regarding this, the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) said it is still premature to consider invoking an emergency arbitration order to forcibly halt the strike and noted it will support autonomous bargaining between labor and management until the strike.
At an emergency briefing for the press corps that day, a Labor Ministry official said the ministry is very disappointed that the second ex post mediation by the National Labor Relations Commission failed and added that since there is still time before the strike, the government will provide maximum support, unconstrained by formalities, so that the matter can be resolved through autonomous bargaining under the basic principle of a dialogue-based solution between the parties.
When reporters asked whether the legal review to invoke an emergency arbitration order had been completed, the official said it is premature because there is still time for the two sides to talk. When asked whether invoking the emergency arbitration order before the general strike had been considered, the official said there is still time for labor and management to negotiate autonomously.
Under the chair of the National Labor Relations Commission, Samsung Electronics labor and management conducted ex post mediation from the 18th to the 20th but failed to reach a deal. There remains a possibility that labor and management will additionally apply to the commission for ex post mediation.
The emergency arbitration order the government is considering invoking is based on Article 76 of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act. Under Article 76, the Minister of the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) may invoke an emergency arbitration order when a work stoppage poses a clear risk of seriously harming the national economy or endangering the daily lives of the public.
If an emergency arbitration order is invoked, the union must immediately halt industrial action and strikes are banned for 30 days. Continuing strike action during this period may be subject to investigation for legal violations. For 30 days, labor and management must resume negotiations, and if they fail to reach agreement, the chairperson of the National Labor Relations Commission will decide ex officio to refer the case to arbitration. Once an arbitration plan is issued, labor and management must comply.
The emergency arbitration order has been invoked four times so far: the 1969 Daehan Shipbuilding strike, the 1993 Hyundai Motor strike, and the Asiana Airlines and Korean Air Lines pilot strikes in July and December 2005. Analysts say the ripple effect of a general strike at Samsung Electronics on Korea's economy would be far greater than in those cases.