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52-hour work week will be expanded to small and medium-sized businesses with 50 or more employees starting next year.

The government is in a position that it cannot be postponed any longer, but as the business crisis continues due to the prolonged COVID-19 outbreak, companies are demanding a postponement for the time being.



Reporter Kim Hye-min covered the field.



<Reporter>



A small and medium-sized company that produces automobile molds in Asan, Chungnam.



With around 130 employees, the company must follow a 52-hour weekly system starting in January next year.



[President of auto parts manufacturer: It is very difficult to cultivate skilled workers because of the corona, employees are unable to find employment and we are not working.

So I asked you to postpone even this period...

.] From



next year, the 52-hour week system will be expanded to companies with 50 or more employees, but SMEs are demanding an additional extension of the guidance period, saying that the management difficulties caused by Corona 19 are severe, and the burden of manpower shortages and labor costs rises.



39% said it was difficult to adopt a 52-hour week.



The government is in the position that there is no further extension.



Last year, Korea's work-life balance ranking ranked fourth in the last place after Colombia, Mexico and Turkey, and the 52-hour weekly system is an unstoppable trend in order to solve the problem of overwork and improve the quality of life.



[Kim Jong-jin/Research Fellow, Korea Labor and Social Research Institute: If the government and local governments provide short-term labor cost subsidies and the Labor Welfare Corporation provides some in-house welfare support, the 52-hour cap is a good policy for workers without the burden of companies...

.]



However, as early confusion is expected, an extension of the flexible work system can be a method.



If you work less in the off-season within the range of 52 hours, you can work more in the off-season. The bill to extend the work volume adjustment period from 3 to 6 months is uncertain, as the ruling and opposition parties have not reached an agreement.