Calls are growing to designate Seoul city buses as a "mandatory public interest service." They are a core means of transportation responsible for commuters and the right to mobility, but because of a regulatory gap, operations are effectively halted across the board when a strike occurs.
Experts also noted that the gap between reality and the legal system can no longer be left unaddressed.
A mandatory public interest service refers to businesses essential to public life and safety and the maintenance of daily life, such as railways, urban railways, hospitals, water, electricity, gas, communications, and aviation. It is defined under the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act.
However, city buses, which are a regular-route passenger transport business, are excluded. If drivers go on strike, there is no mechanism to guarantee a minimum service level, so operations can be completely suspended, and the damage falls squarely on the public.
◇"Strike → traffic paralysis" cascades through urban functions
In fact, labor-management conflicts have repeatedly occurred at Seoul city bus business sites in recent years. There was one strike in 2024, but including attempted strikes in 2025, that number increased to four. On some routes, service was suspended for several days, causing rush-hour congestion and overcrowding on the subway.
Recently, even without a full-scale strike, advance notice of industrial action or work-to-rule campaigns have been heightening public anxiety. Transportation experts said, "Regardless of whether service is actually halted, the constant structure of looming strike risks is shrinking urban functions."
A halt in city bus service goes beyond simple transportation inconvenience and has a cascading impact across overall urban functions. It can quickly expand social costs such as reduced corporate productivity due to delayed arrivals at work, decreased sales for the self-employed, and worsened access to care, medical, and education services.
In particular, the controversy over public interest is growing because the impact concentrates on transportation-vulnerable groups and low-income residents. Business circles in Seoul and small business groups also see that if service suspensions are repeated, the ripple effects on the local economy will not be small. Among citizens, questions of fairness are continuing, such as "Railways and urban railways are mandatory public interest services, so why are city buses excluded?"
◇Seoul City: "Mandatory public interest designation is needed"... Government: "Hard to accept"
Reflecting these concerns, the Seoul Metropolitan Council adopted a "resolution urging amendment of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act to designate city buses as a mandatory public interest service" at its 323rd extraordinary session in Apr. 2024. The Seoul Metropolitan Government also submitted the issue the same year as a central regulatory improvement task and has been proposing legal revisions to the National Assembly and the government. In Jan. 2025, it delivered an official request for legal amendment to the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL).
However, the labor ministry says it is "hard to accept." Unlike hospitals, water, and electricity, it is difficult to conclude that a halt in bus service immediately and directly causes a marked disruption to the public's daily lives. It also cites the facts that, unlike railways or urban railways, many transport companies exist and thus there is weak monopoly or oligopoly, and that the International Labor Organization (ILO) recommends limiting the scope of mandatory public interest services to strictly essential services.
But many argue that this logic does not match the transportation reality of major cities. City buses are operated through joint dispatching and route systems by region, so issues at an individual company directly lead to route suspensions. Formally, many operators exist, but from the public's perspective, they function as effectively a single urban transportation infrastructure.
◇Seoul, an ultra-dense megacity… Overseas, "maintain minimum service levels"
In ultra-dense metropolitan areas like the capital region, city buses and subways form the two pillars of public transit. In Seoul, there are wide living areas not served by the subway, and much of the transfer system is designed around buses. When bus service is halted during rush hour, subway crowding surges, and the citywide mobility system is shaken at once—a phenomenon that keeps recurring.
In major cities overseas, many systems guarantee a certain level of service even during strikes, considering the public nature of mass transit. Some countries, including the United Kingdom, require maintaining minimum service levels during strikes.
Designation as a mandatory public interest service does not ban strikes outright. It is a mechanism to balance public interest and labor rights by setting minimum staffing levels through labor-management consultations. This approach is already applied in several sectors, including railways, urban railways, and hospitals.
Lee Dong-min, a professor of transportation engineering at the University of Seoul, said, "Bus strikes can infringe on the public's basic right to mobility," adding, "It is necessary to clearly define in law the minimum service level for city buses and the essential duties to be maintained."