Cho Kuk, head of the Rebuilding Korea Party Innovation Policy Institute, wrote on Facebook on the 9th, "The Democratic Party of Korea should state its position on Minister Kim Jung-kwan of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources' remarks defending China's '996 work system.'"
China's 996 work system means starting work at 9 a.m., finishing at 9 p.m., and working six days a week. The Minister said at a Kwanhun Forum on the 7th that, citing China's 996 work system, Korea needs an exception to the 52-hour workweek for research and development (R&D) personnel to avoid falling behind in competition.
Cho said, "Goh Dong-jin, a People Power Party lawmaker and former Samsung Electronics president, once introduced a special bill applying a 52-hour exception to all semiconductor research and development personnel, and the Minister went a step further," adding it was a "anti-human-rights and anachronistic idea."
He continued, "Korea already operates a flexible work hours system, but the Minister said that system alone is not enough and that China's 996 system is needed." The flexible work hours system is one in which, by labor-management agreement, within the scope of not exceeding an average of 40 hours per week, a worker sets the start and end times of work and the number of work hours per day.
He added, "Under a 2021 decision by China's Supreme People's Court and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the 996 work system is now illegal even in China," and "In 1995, the Chinese government revised State Council regulations to shorten standard working hours to eight hours a day and 40 hours a week."
He also said, "A 4.5-day workweek is President Lee Jae-myung's campaign pledge," and "When the past Yoon Suk-yeol administration pushed to introduce a 52-hour workweek exception for R&D workers, it was the Democratic Party, then the opposition, that strongly opposed it and derailed it."
Cho, the party leader, said, "As a responsible ruling party, it must clearly answer whether Minister Kim Jung-kwan's push to introduce the '996' work system is the 'centrist pragmatism' the Democratic Party pursues."
Meanwhile, the Minister said at a forum two days earlier, "I was startled to hear from an official at an IT company in Chongqing, China, that when they tried to introduce the '996' system, employees pushed back, saying, 'How can we compete with other companies working like that?,' and the system ultimately changed to working until midnight." He added, "Rules should not crush the drive and will of people who want to work hard and achieve," and, "There is a need to adjust working-hours systems not only in research and development (R&D) but across the high-tech industry, including startups."