Ministers of finance and labor on Monday urged the opposition party to stop pushing a bill that would prevent unionized workers from being sued by companies to recover financial losses from sit-in protests, calling it "illegitimate."
In an emergency press briefing, Labor Minister Lee Jung-sik said the bill lacks “legal stability and predictability" and could lead to "strike omnipotence."
“If the revision is passed, the labor union will be able to resolve the dispute by wielding its own power, such as strikes, rather than complying with legal judgments. This can increase the cost and number of labor-management conflicts," he said.
The bill is known as "yellow envelope bill" after a 47,000 won ($36.26) donation in a yellow envelope was delivered to unionized workers at SsangYong Motor, who faced a court ruling to pay 4.7 billion won for financial losses they caused the company during sit-in protests they staged. The bill is also designed to guarantee the bargaining power of indirectly hired workers.
The bill being pushed by the main opposition Democratic Party and the minor opposition Justice Party confronts President Yoon Suk Yeol's drive to crackdown on what he calls "illegal strikes" by "aristocratic unions."
The opposition parties are set to push it through a parliamentary committee, and have it put in a vote at the plenary session. Ruling party lawmakers have claimed that the bill is intended to retaliate against the Yoon over the prosecution's pursuit of an arrest warrant against the opposition leader. The business community has also raised concerns about the bill.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Korea, the Justice Party, and the labor community say that the law revision is necessary to protect workers.
Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho also expressed similar concerns as Lee, calling for fundamental re-discussion of the issue.
"Conflicts between labor and management will worsen and become more frequent as even the problems that are currently handled in judicial ways, such as unfair labor practices and overdue wages, will become the cause of labor disputes," said Choo.
Choo said that forcing the revision will raise social conflicts and uncertainties in the corporate scene, leading to significant negative impact on the national economy as a whole.
"The government strongly urges the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee to reconsider and discuss concerns from all walks of life about the revision of the trade union law," said Choo.
If the opposition party passes the bill, the president has the power to veto it.
Meanwhile, the confrontation between the trade unions and the government continued to intensify later in the afternoon as the government and the ruling party said they would strengthen efforts to improve the union's accounting transparency.
The government asked a total of 327 unions and related organizations with more than 1,000 members to submit accounting-related data from Feb. 1 to 15, but only 120, 36.7 percent, submitted the data.
"We have no choice but to take decisive action against (the trade unions) that deny the law and refuse to disclose where government subsidies worth hundreds of billions of won are spent," President Yoon Suk Yeol warned in a weekly meeting with the prime minister on Monday
