Min Choi (translated by KILSH)
The Labor Institute of Korean Confederation of Trade Unions criticized that the government’s plan is deficient in support for maintaining employment and for the unemployed and employed workers, contrary to the measures to help businesses with an astronomical budget. The government announced it will spend more than 100 trillion won for stabilizing financial market, more than 20 trillion won as emergency financial aid for companies in overseas of which import or export is damaged by COVID-19, more than 36 trillion won for driving export, and 2.2 trillion won for supporting start-up & venture corporates. In contrast, the budget newly prepared for supporting the unemployed and employed workers is just 1.57 trillion won, excluding the 14 trillion won for disaster relief fund currently under discussion. (KCTU Labor Institute, Criticism to the Responses to COVID-19 of Moon Jae-in administration, Issue Paper volume 05, 13th April 2020.)
In addition, there is no other measure for the impact on employment, other than expansion of the pre-existing employment maintenance subsidy and employment stabilization fund. The loophole of those programs, leaving various workers with no employment insurance behind the system, cannot help but be reproduced. So-called ‘special’ employees, dispatch workers, agency workers, in-house subcontracting workers, and workers in companies with less than five employees are the ones left behind.
And yet at the end of March the Korea Enterprises Federation(KEF) and the Federation of Korean Industries(FKI) demanded more flexibility of the labor market including easy dismissal, further reduction of corporate’s cost via lowering corporation tax, income tax, and inheritance tax, and deregulations in their Proposals of the Business Leaders to Improve Economic Vigor and To Advance the Employment & Labor Market and Urgent Proposals of the Economic Leaders to Overcome the Economic Crisis of COVID-19. Despite of using COVID-19 as an excuse, those proposals are just the same deregulations that the employers have been constantly demanding. Here are some clauses directly related to workers’ health and safety among the FKI proposals which are very similar with one of KEF.
Table. Urgent Proposals of the Economic Leaders to Overcome the Economic Crisis of COVID-19 by the Federation of Korean Industries (March 25, 2020)
A Plot to Extend Work Hours Under the Cloak of Countermeasures Against COVID-10
One of the prominent features of this proposal is that it contains massive demand to deregulate work hours. According to the Labor Standard Act amended in 2018, work hours should be no longer than 52 hours per week. This amendment had been initially enforced only in businesseswith over 300 employees, and just this year began to be applied in companies with over 50 employees. However, FKI demanded to expand the list of businesses that can exceptionally get approval of specially extended work hours. The Minister of Ministry of Employment and Labor announced to push the approval rapidly for financial institutions which become busy with financial support related to COVID-19.
The Korean government had already prepared massive expansion of the criteria eligible for specially extended work hours by amending the Labor Standard Act at the end of 2019. That is, the eligibility which had been originally limited to the conditions ‘for management of natural disasters, incidents, or other equivalent accidents’ changed to include situations in which a ‘substantially higher workload can cause property loss or serious damage to the business, if not managed in a short period of time’. This amended Bill was applied to the businesses providing disinfection services and ones manufacturing facial masks under the pretext of COVID-19, and now is going to be expanded to the financial institutions.
Employers are also demanding to extend ‘the unit period’ for flexible work hours system. It has been their constant demand since the law was made to limit extension of work hours up to 52 hours per week. Under the flexible work hours system in the Labor Standard Act, employers can let employees work up to 52 hours per week if the average of work hours per week does not exceed 40 hours. Then another 12 hours per week can be added with the mutual agreement between the employer and worker. Eventually, work hours can be extended up to 64 hours per week. If ‘the unit period’ becomes longer, employers can let their employees work 64 hours per week for a longer period of time. For example, if the legal unit period becomes six months, workers may have to continue 64 work hours per week for three months, which can increase risk of cerebrovascular or cardiovascular disorders and mental disorders.
Both demands to expand the eligibility for specially extended work hours and to lengthen the unit period for flexible work hours system are attempts to disable the regulation on work hours. Capitalists seem to dream of a post-COVID-19 world that consists of overwork and unemployment, that forces the working class to appreciate overwork in fear of unemployment, and that does not need any regulation to limit extended work hours.
Negligence of Safety and Environment
In addition, employers’ demands to abolish the compulsory closedown of superstores and to prolong the grace period for Safety Truck Freightage System can also aggravate long work hours and deteriorate work conditions in the relevant industries. Although the compulsory closedown of superstores was made mainly to resuscitate the small businesses, it helped reduction of work hours in the superstores. Most importantly, the workers in the superstores could have ‘social holidays’ as others. Unessential night work or holiday work should be prohibited for the decent life of workers. Now employers are insisting to nullify even this minimal progress. The retail industry argues that superstores are not the strong player any more. However, they never mention the fact that the online sales of those superstores has increased due to COVID-19.
This is not originated from a few greedy big retailers. Andong city used to plan a temporary abolition of the compulsory closedown of superstores in the name of preventing shortage of daily necessities. Although this plan was rejected, both the retail industry and pro-business press were looking forward to expanding deregulation beyond Andong city.
The capital attacked even the new Safety Truck Freightage System enforced January 1, 2020. This system was proposed to improve the working conditions of cargo transport workers who had been forced to overwork, overspeed, and overload due to the extremely low freight. Under the new system, the minimum freight should be publicly announced and people who violate it shall pay a fine. It was made because of huge social cost from accidents and damages of roads. The current Safety Freightage System is so limited that it can be effective for only three years temporarily and cover the containers for international trade and cement products, which is 6.5% of 400,000 cargo transport workers. That is why there is ongoing campaign petition to expand the coverage of this system. And then, the employers are pushing the government to prolong the grace period originally planned to end February 2020 until the COVID-19 crisis ends.
The Act on Registration, Evaluation, etc. of Chemicals that was made 2013 after the tragedy of humidifier disinfectants is another regulation which the employers have been demanding to relax or delay whenever they could find any excuse. This time they asked one year of a grace period for registration of chemicals. Korea Federation for Environment Movements and others criticized that this is an outrageous demand saying ‘even in this year, chemical accidents such as the explosion at Lotte Chemical’s plant in Seosan keep happening everywhere, still exposing workers and people’s life and safety to risk’.
However, the government had different idea. The Ministry of Environment decided to delay or relax several regulations in the Chemicals Control Act and the Act on Registration, Evaluation, etc. of Chemicals at the 4th Emergency Economic Council meeting; in the Chemicals Control Act , the fast-track list of facilities handling hazardous chemicals which need to be approved or permitted was expanded temporarily until December 2021; and in the Act on Registration, Evaluation, etc. of Chemicals, the list of data to apply for registration that a manufacturer or importer of phase-in substance less than one ton per year need not submit to the Ministry of Environment was expanded massively.
All those demands to abolish the compulsory closedown of superstores, to prolong the grace period for Safety Truck Freightage System, and to deregulate the Act on Registration, Evaluation, etc. of Chemicals show how desperately the corporates want to neglect safety and environment. They seem eager to make deregulation ‘a new normal’ by taking advantage of a disastrous situation.
Precautions against Post-COVID-19 Disaster Capitalism
We must pay attention to the fact that the government is actively responding in concert with the corporates’ demands. Ministry of Employment and Labor deregulates work hour limitation. Ministry of Environment loosens the responsibility on management of chemicals. When the corporates demanded to let the Special Act on the Corporate Revitalization be applied to all types of industry, a press article wrote that the government was considering to amend the Act. Special Act on the Corporate Revitalization, so-called ‘One Shot Act’, was made for easier merger and acquisition of corporates. Even the government keeps warning that massive unemployment among older generation can result from M&A of corporates activated by this Act.
This is a Korean version of disaster capitalism. Disaster capitalism means the capital’s immediate looting for its own profit while people get shocked and terrified by a disastrous situation such as war or natural disaster. Financial crisis of Korea in 1998 was an example of disaster capitalism. The Korea society got deeply shocked by the unprecedented situation of State bankruptcy. So it accepted the neoliberal argument that claims ‘escape from State bankruptcy is possible only with opening the market and privatization of industry’, as a ‘shock doctrine’. Since that financial crisis, Korea society has a new ‘norm’ of increasing precarious workers, constant restructuring, and insecure employment. Workers who survived from restructuring have faced higher work intensity. Suicide rate which increased sharply in 1998 has not decreased ever since then for 20 years.
The same is true for now. We may pay dearly if we take care of nothing else other than the number of people infected by the Corona virus or the emergency disaster relief fund. Deregulation in the name of revitalization of the economy, deterioration of labor rights by holding jobs hostage, and retrogressive revision of labor-related laws have been driven sneakily. Our next twenty years depend on which direction we are going to choose to tackle the current situation; pain-sharing or workers’ solidarity; resuscitating the corporates or sustaining employment.