Editorial: Narrowing Grounds for Labor Disputes Undermines the Yellow Envelope Law

The government has narrowed the issues unions may bring into labor disputes, despite a law passed by the National Assembly that sought to broaden them. The move has drawn sharp criticism from a Hankyoreh editorial, which says the implementation guideline reverses the stated goal of expanding labor rights.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor said business-management decisions, including performance bonuses linked to operating profit and the introduction of artificial intelligence, do not qualify as subjects for labor disputes. Its guidance specifically excludes factory construction, business sales and acquisitions, and the introduction of new technologies from collective bargaining.

The amended Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act, widely called the Yellow Envelope Law, includes business decisions that affect working conditions among potential labor-dispute issues. That provision was intended to give workers a voice before decisions such as factory relocation, business sales or new technology adoption substantially affect employment, workplaces or job duties.

The editorial also challenges the exclusion of profit-linked bonuses. How a company divides profits among wages, investment and dividends may involve management decisions, it says, but determining how to reward workers’ contributions remains a traditional subject of wage negotiations. The government should not close the door to bargaining simply because shareholder and corporate interests must also be considered. The level of agreement should emerge from negotiations between labor and management, the editorial argues.

It further objects to imposing the limitation through an implementation guideline. Such guidance sets an administrative agency’s interpretation and working standards, rather than creating a law or regulation that directly binds the public. The ministry plans to use it when labor commissions mediate disputes, handle unfair labor-practice cases and issue administrative guidance to unions. The editorial warns that narrowing rights expanded by the legislature through an administrative interpretation could trigger legal challenges.

The ministry prepared the guideline after a special instruction from President Lee Jae-myung. Lee reportedly acted after Samsung Electronics’ union said it would make a regional semiconductor mega-project a bargaining issue and unions at major companies began demanding bonuses linked to operating profits. The editorial says the president’s concern for the national economy is understandable, but argues that it must not come at the expense of workers’ basic rights.