KCTU: Yellow Envelope Law Guidelines Give Companies an Excuse to Avoid Bargaining

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions launched simultaneous sit-ins at major labor offices across the country on the 7th, accusing the government of creating new obstacles to bargaining with parent companies under the Yellow Envelope Law.

KCTU held a news conference outside the Seoul Regional Employment and Labor Office in central Seoul and at labor offices in other regions. The union demanded the withdrawal of the law's enforcement decree and interpretive guidelines, saying the measures have made genuine negotiations difficult six months after the amended Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act took effect.

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The enforcement decree and implementation guidelines are giving companies grounds to avoid bargaining, while bills expanding long hours and nonregular labor are being prepared under the Mega Special Zone Act.

KCTU Chairman Yang Kyung-soo said about 600 workplaces affiliated with the union had requested bargaining, but fewer than 40 had reached even an initial meeting. He argued that the enforcement decree and guidelines were giving companies grounds to avoid negotiations. The union plans to continue its sit-ins outside labor offices.

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Although the Yellow Envelope Law took effect on March 10, fewer than 40 of the roughly 600 KCTU workplaces that requested bargaining have even held an initial meeting six months later.

The Labor Ministry issued guidelines on the 3rd stating that demands for management performance bonuses linked to operating profits and other corporate earnings do not fall under labor disputes. The guidelines also said decisions to build or relocate factories and introduce new technologies, including artificial intelligence, are not mandatory bargaining subjects. The two major labor federations say the guidance violates workers' three constitutional rights and conflicts with the Yellow Envelope Law's expansion of the concept of labor disputes.

KCTU also criticized the enforcement decree for requiring a single bargaining channel, which it said weakens unions' practical bargaining power. Its demands for the second half of the year include scrapping the decree, the interpretive guidelines and the Mega Special Zone Act; expanding labor-law coverage for specially employed and platform workers; ending discrimination against nonregular workers; and increasing budgets for public services.

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Scrap the various guidelines that go beyond the authority granted by the enforcement decree and the law.