Academia and labor squarely clashed over where to use the profits generated by the semiconductor super-boom. While academics argued that excess profits should be used as resources for future investment, labor countered that they should be allocated to improving conditions for subcontractors and nonregular workers.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technolog (KIAT) held a forum titled "corporations investment and the future of labor in the age of AI" on the 15th in Yeouido, Seoul.
An Dong-hyeon, a professor in the Department of Economics at Seoul National University who delivered the keynote, said the definition of excess profits is unclear, and warned that if this standard is created arbitrarily, "there is a risk it will degenerate into bargaining power–based distribution rather than market-based distribution." An said that because semiconductors are an industry with high volatility and a high risk of investment failure, excess profits should be used as reinvestment resources for future revenue. He added that profit distribution inside corporations is for corporations to decide, and the distribution of excess tax revenues is for the government to decide, saying the two issues should be separated.
Kim Dong-wook, a professor at the School of Law at Korea University who delivered another presentation, pointed to Korea's current labor law regime—which makes dismissals difficult unlike global big tech—as a bottleneck in AI and semiconductor competition. He proposed clarifying the interpretation of requirements for dismissals for managerial reasons, allowing dispatch work limited to advanced processes such as semiconductors, and considering exemptions from working-hours regulations for high-income professionals. He noted, however, that any flexibility discussion must be paired with stronger social safety nets.
After the topic presentations, labor representatives refuted Kim's premise. Jang Jin-hee, a senior research fellow at the Korea Federation of Trade Unions' Central Research Institute, said that on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) employment protection index, Korea's protection level for regular-worker dismissals is 2.35, slightly above the member average of 2.21 and in the middle tier, adding, "The diagnosis that Korea's dismissal regulations are uniquely rigid and thus a bottleneck to industrial response is not supported by data."
Lee Gyeo-rae, Chairperson of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) Youth Special Committee, said excess profits should first be used to improve treatment for subcontractors, partner firms, and nonregular workers. In contrast, Hwang Yong-yeon, a director at the Korea Employers Federation, and Lee Sang-ho, head of the Economic Headquarters at The Federation of Korean Industries, countered that allocating operating profits falls under the authority of the shareholders' meeting and the board of directors under the Commercial Act, and therefore cannot be a subject of collective bargaining.
At the forum, Kim Jung-kwan, Minister of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI), said, "In the AI era, corporations' profits must be turned into investments for the future," adding, "For the future of labor, innovation in how work is done matters more than quantity."