Biz leaders call for prompt passage of non-regular workers' bill

By Nam Kwang-sik
SEOUL, July 2 (Yonhap) -- The leaders of South Korea's five leading business
lobby groups called Thursday for the National Assembly to rapidly pass a bill
amending the controversial law on irregular workers, warning of the possbility of
massive layoffs if progress is not made.

Ruling and opposition parties failed on Wednesday to reach agreement on revisions
to the law due to differences over a grace period for enforcing the mandatory
transition of non-regular workers to full-time employees.
Without the revision, millions of irregular workers are on the verge of possibly
being laid off, .
Under the current law, enacted on July 1, 2007, companies are obliged to promote
irregular workers to regular status or scrap employment contract with them
starting this month, after two years of employment at a single workplace.
Non-regular workers currently account for roughly 5.5 million or 37 percent of
the nation's total workforce, according to government data.
Earlier, the government and the ruling Grand National Party proposed a
one-and-half-year grace period for the revision of the law to prevent a massive
firing of non-regular workers amid economic slump, while the main opposition
Democratic Party insisted on a six-month period.
The business leaders, including Sohn Kyung-shik, chairman of the Korea Chamber of
Commerce and Industry (KCCI), asserted in a joint news conference that the best
way to solve the non-regular workers issue is to lift restrictions on the period
of the employment of non-regular workers.
The leaders also pledged to strive to narrow various treatment gaps existing
between regular and irregular workers, saying that they are the source of the
ongoing conflict.
The five business bodies are the KCCI, the Federation of Korean Industries, the
Korea International Trade Association, the Korea Federation of Small and Medium
Businesses and the Korea Employers Federation.
ksnam@yna.co.kr
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