President calls for swift Assembly action on non-regular workers bill

By Byun Duk-kun
SEOUL, June 22 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak on Monday urged the ruling and
opposition parties to move quickly on revising a controversial labor bill that
threatens job security for non-regular workers, warning that failure to do so
will lead to mass layoffs.

Under the current bill that took effect on July 1, 2007, companies with 100 or
more employees that want to continue employing non-regular workers who have
served for longer than two years must change their job status to "regular."
Without a revision of the labor bill, domestic companies will be forced to
dismiss large numbers of non-regular workers with employment periods of over two
years in order to avoid escalating labor costs.
Lee's call comes as the rival parties have been unable to convene an
extraordinary parliamentary session that was originally scheduled to open at the
beginning of the month.
The session was first delayed by a few days due to the death of former President
Roh Moo-hyun on May 23, but the rival parties have still not been able to agree
on a starting date due to differences over a number of government and ruling
party backed bills, including a controversial revision of the media law that
seeks to allow cross ownership of broadcasting companies by private firms and
major newspaper owners.
The ruling Grand National Party was expected Monday to unilaterally announce the
opening of the National Assembly session regardless of whether opposition parties
participate or not, while the main opposition Democratic Party remains firm in
its stance that it will agree to a July session of the parliament only if the
governing party agrees not to push through the controversial bills.
"The most urgent task is to improve working conditions for non-regular workers,"
President Lee was quoted as saying in a meeting with his senior secretaries,
asserting the proposed revision of the irregular workers bill would help achieve
that goal.
The government claims a failure to enact the proposed revision will lead to
hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people losing their jobs as the law
currently limits to 24 months the time that companies can employ a non-regular
worker before having to hire the person on as a full-time employee with higher
pay.
The bill seeks to extend the time limit to four years.
The opposition Democratic Party and the more liberal Democratic Workers Party
have strongly opposed the revision, claiming it will lead to a significant
expansion of non-regular employees. The number of non-regular workers here
increased to over 5 million from some 1.5 million when the law was enacted in
2006.
President Lee said the ongoing rift between the political parties was mainly due
to ideological divisions, according to his spokesman Lee Dong-kwan.
"Integration and unity are not something that can be achieved with only slogans.
A society must have a strong middle to be healthy," he was quoted as saying.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)