[EXPLAINER] Strike threat by major union spotlights demands over how to define workers, employers

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), one of the country’s two largest labor groups with over a million members, is threatening a nationwide general strike Wednesday in an effort to pressure lawmakers to revise a key labor law at the heart of its demands. At a press conference earlier this month, KCTU representatives said their top demand is the revision of Articles 2 and 3 of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act, calling the changes essential to achieving what it described as “labor justice.” Currently, an employer is legally defined as “a business owner, a person responsible for the management of a business or a person who acts on behalf of a business owner with regard to matters concerning workers in the business.” The KCTU seeks to expand the definition. A bill, proposed last month by 43 liberal legislators, mostly of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, would include not only employers who hire workers directly but also entities with “de facto control” over working conditions ― such as parent companies in subcontracting arrangements. The bilWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times