The South Korean government notes that the current legal limit of 52 hours per week does not meet the needs of businesses.
In South Korea, working time is currently set at 52 hours per week: 40 statutory hours to which 12 additional hours can be added. It is a 2018 law that established this cap to prevent workers from being overworked.
However, current Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol wants to change this rule, which he considers inappropriate “given the labor needs of various industries, especially to cope with the workload during high demand or peak season,” according to the Korea Times newspaper. The Korean government therefore wants to reform this weekly working time so that it adapts to the needs of different companies.
According to Le Figaro, who is passing on this reform project, workers could do up to 29 hours of overtime per week, for a total of 69 hours per week. In return, employees could benefit from more annual leave during weaker times.
But the Korean government may well encounter some difficulties in its approach, as workers’ coordination groups have clearly expressed their opposition to these new policy proposals, The Korea Times points out.
The Korea Trade Union Confederation issued a statement calling the proposal “a retrospective revision of the law that would leave the decision on wages and hours to employers.”
– With information from Ouest France