South Korea's Ministry of Employment and Labor will gather views from labor and management before announcing measures to resolve disputes over the ambiguous standards for industrial action under the revised Trade Union Act, known as the "Yellow Envelope Law." Attention is focused on whether the ministry can win over labor groups, which have objected that the push for subordinate legislation runs counter to the law's intent.
The ministry will hold separate closed-door meetings with labor and business groups next week to share the supplementary measures for the revised law, according to labor sources on the 28th. The meetings are expected to serve as a final round of coordination on the measures the ministry plans to announce soon.
President Lee Jae-myung has twice stressed at Cabinet meetings that the standards for industrial disputes under the revised law must be clarified. The ministry, which had initially planned to address the ambiguity mainly through administrative interpretations and guidelines, has since broadened its review to include enacting subordinate legislation such as presidential decrees and ministerial rules.
The dispute over ambiguity stems from the revised law's inclusion of "disagreements over management decisions that affect working conditions" as a subject of industrial disputes. In its interpretive guidelines, the ministry concluded that management decisions themselves — including corporate investment, mergers, spinoffs and transfers — are not subjects for bargaining, on the grounds that they cannot be seen as having a substantive and specific impact on working conditions. Confusion on the ground has continued nonetheless, with the Samsung Electronics union treating its opposition to a semiconductor mega-cluster as a bargaining issue.
Labor groups are strongly opposed to the government's move to supplement the revised law. In a statement this month, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions made its opposition clear, calling any narrowing of the scope of industrial disputes "a grave matter that restricts workers' constitutionally guaranteed right to collective action."
There is also considerable legal skepticism about whether the ministry can in fact enact a presidential decree limiting the scope of industrial action. Because the Trade Union Act itself contains no explicit provision delegating authority for subordinate legislation, pressing ahead with a decree could raise questions about exceeding the limits of delegated legislation.
The ministry said it is "comprehensively reviewing the legislative framework, effectiveness and legal stability, including options for regulating the subjects of industrial disputes through administrative legislation such as presidential decrees and ministerial rules," adding that it will "gather sufficient input from experts and industry to draw up specific measures."
