Labor in Local Elections: Past, Present, and Future

Sook-gyeon Lee, Activist with the Korea Institute of Labor Safety and Health

Translated by Michelle Jang

Korea Institute of Labor Safety and Health

The Local Autonomy Act was enacted in 1949, and the first local councils were established in 1952. However, before the system of local autonomy had a chance to take root, the local councils were forcibly dissolved following the military coup of May 16, 1961. For the next 30 years, until the councils were reinstated in 1991, the central government appointed local government heads, maintaining a system of centralized, government-led administration.

The first nationwide simultaneous local elections were held on September 27, 1995. Today, South Korea has 17 metropolitan local governments and 226 basic local governments, including cities, counties, and districts. The ninth nationwide simultaneous local elections are scheduled for June 3, 2026.

Local Governments’ Responsibilities for Occupational Safety and Health
Although South Korea’s system of local autonomy had been in place for 30 years, local governments did not begin developing labor policies until after 2010. As the labor market underwent major changes, including greater labor market flexibility and growing social inequality, the need for local governments to play a role in labor policy became increasingly apparent.

Against this backdrop, policy initiatives such as the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s 2011 effort to regularize non-regular workers helped pave the way for the expansion of local labor policies, including regionally tailored employment policies, the protection of workers’ rights, and support for non-regular workers. From around 2017, local governments also began introducing policies based on ordinances for the prevention of occupational accidents. Several local governments, including the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Gyeonggi Province, took the lead in these efforts. Since 2021, such policies have expanded more broadly following the inclusion of local governments’ responsibilities in the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

It is only relatively recently that local governments have begun to seriously consider and develop policies to prevent occupational accidents as part of their broader labor policies. Yet the pace at which these policies have spread has been remarkable. All 17 metropolitan and provincial governments across the country have enacted relevant ordinances, and by the latter half of 2023, approximately 120 basic local governments had also enacted such ordinances.

Many local governments have made “creating healthy and safe workplaces” a policy goal for preventing occupational accidents. They have put these policies and initiatives into practice by establishing dedicated departments and allocating budgets, while also striving to serve as exemplary employers in preventing serious accidents.

However, significant disparities remain among local governments in the implementation of ordinances and policies, and policy directions that shift with election results are another concern. Some basic and metropolitan local governments fail to provide sufficient funding and personnel, resulting in projects that are little more than “window dressing.” In addition, when local government leaders change, labor and occupational accident prevention policies are sometimes suspended or scaled back rather than pursued consistently, limiting their effectiveness.

Lost and Wandering, or Simply Putting on a Show
A notable example is South Chungcheong Province. Beginning in 2015, the province held 13 working-level committee meetings involving the country’s two major labor federations, experts, and relevant public officials, and developed its First Basic Labor Policy Plan in 2017. It subsequently established an Employment and Labor Policy Division and launched the South Chungcheong Labor Rights Center.

For the Second Basic Labor Policy Plan, developed in 2022, the province expanded its planning task force to 36 members, including labor activists and members of the provincial assembly. Through 18 rounds of discussions and study sessions, the task force developed 55 action items. The plan addressed key issues of the time, including a just transition, responses to digital transformation, protections for emotional laborers, and support for mobile workers. Building on this plan, South Chungcheong Province also signed the nation’s first “Labor-Government Agreement on Just Industrial Transition.”

However, following the 2022 local elections, changes in the political landscape led to the suspension of labor-government consultations with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). As a result, the “Labor-Government Agreement on Just Industrial Transition” was effectively put on hold, while key initiatives—including the establishment of a Labor Safety and Health Center—remained only on paper.

In Busan Metropolitan City, the enactment of the “Busan Metropolitan City Ordinance on the Protection and Promotion of Workers’ Rights and Interests” in February 2019 and the “Busan Metropolitan City Ordinance on the Prevention of Industrial Accidents and the Promotion of Workers’ Health” in May 2020 was followed by the launch of the Second Basic Labor Policy Plan in March 2025, which is currently being implemented.

The first of its three major policy goals is “Creating Safe Workplaces,” with 12 action items planned to achieve it. Yet the budget allocated for these initiatives in 2026 amounts to only 470 million won (~USD$350,000). One of these initiatives is the Busan Metropolitan City Labor Safety and Health Monitoring Team, first established in April 2021. With a goal of conducting on-site inspections at 100 workplaces, the program has been allocated just 45 million won for 2026 (~USD$33,470).

The scale and operation of the program stand in stark contrast to Gyeonggi Province’s Labor Safety and Health Monitoring Team, which has 112 members across 31 cities and counties and a budget of 4.5 billion won (~USD$3,347,000). Gyeonggi Province has three dedicated departments under its Labor Bureau, including a Labor Safety Division staffed by 18 people.

Busan, by contrast, operates a dual structure, with a Serious Accident Prevention Division under the Citizen Safety Office and an Industrial Safety Team under the Employment and Labor Division of the Digital Economy Office. Despite local governments’ responsibility to prevent occupational accidents, the Industrial Safety Team has only three staff members.

This reality is unlikely to be unique to South Chungcheong Province and Busan. While the size and financial constraints of individual local governments may be factors, what is needed above all is a clear vision and commitment to labor policy and occupational accident prevention, backed by systematic policies. Only then can local governments develop diverse labor policies tailored to the characteristics of each region, provide support for vulnerable workers, and implement effective measures to prevent occupational accidents.

June 3 Local Elections: Hear the Voices of Workers!
The transfer of powers to local governments and calls for strengthening regional competitiveness are not unqualified goods. They can, after all, come at the expense of workers’ fundamental rights and their right to health. In 2024 and 2025, for example, the policy requiring large supermarkets to close twice a month on public holidays was changed from Sunday closures to weekday closures at the discretion of some local government heads—most notably the mayor of Busan—in response to demands from major retail conglomerates.

The Lee Jae-myung administration’s proposed transfer of labor inspection authority to local governments could likewise lead local government heads to prioritize attracting businesses and easing regulations to facilitate that goal. This could ultimately undermine the labor rights, safety, and right to life of working people. There is also a strong possibility that local governments will be left to bear responsibility for the consequences.

Meanwhile, the “5-Region, 3-Special” regional integration strategy is gaining momentum. The strategy seeks to reorganize the country around five major regional blocs—the Seoul Metropolitan Area, the Southeast Region, the Daegyeong Region, the Central Region, and the Honam Region—and three Special Self-Governing Provinces: Jeju, Gangwon, and Jeonbuk. It is promoted as a way to ease the concentration of resources and population in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, strengthen regional competitiveness, and foster innovative growth through interregional cooperation. In reality, however, it is closer to a strategy for reorganizing geographic space to facilitate capital accumulation, particularly in industries such as semiconductors.

In this context, the role of local governments should not be to grant exemptions or relax regulations in order to attract businesses. It should begin with an assessment of the labor policies they have pursued so far and, above all, with listening to the needs of workers and citizens who live and work in their communities.

Rather than allowing local government leaders to monopolize power and govern undemocratically, let us nurture genuine “grassroots democracy” by ensuring the participation of labor organizations and local actors and building a culture of collaboration.

<References>

1. Source: Proceedings of the 24th Labor Rights Forum, Labor Rights Center, April 26, 2022.

2. Source: Proceedings of the “Labor Pledge for Everyone Who Works: A Forum with the Two Major Labor Federations, Workers, and Citizens,” organized by Tomorrow’s Tomorrow, April 10, 2026.

3. Source: Meeting materials from the Busan Metropolitan City Labor Rights Commission, February 2026.

4. Nam Young-ran, Excerpt from “Let’s Confront Capital’s Spatial Strategies with ‘Local Justice’—Reconfiguring the Region as a Stronghold for the System Transformation Movement,” See Proceedings of the 2026 System Transition Movement Forum.