President Lee Jae-myung said the scope of labor disputes under the yellow envelope law, a new labor law aimed at strengthening the bargaining rights of subcontract workers (revised Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act), needs to be defined, drawing a response from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) that it "unfairly narrows workers' rights."
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) said in a statement on the 11th, "Such attempts hollow out the legislative intent of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act," adding, "We demand an immediate halt." The remarks came the same day after President Lee, at a Cabinet meeting, instructed Minister Kim Young-hoon of the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) to actively review the matter, saying, "There are calls to specify criteria on what clearly is and is not a target of dispute under the yellow envelope law."
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) said, "Scenes in which the judgments of each administrative ministry are easily reconsidered with a single word from the president raise doubts about whether sufficient discussion and review precede labor policy decisions."
It went on, "Narrowing the targets of labor disputes is a grave matter that restricts workers' right to collective action guaranteed by the Constitution, and there must be an explicit legal delegation basis." It added, "Nowhere in the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act is there a delegation clause ordering this to be set by enforcement decree."
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) also added, "We can never accept the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act being hollowed out from the outset of its implementation by the government's passive and regressive stance," and "the president's repeated orders to codify dispute targets by enforcement decree are siding with business circles and an overreach of authority."