The South Korean government renounces to go back on the legal duration of working time

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, March 17, 2023. © PHILIP FONG/Pool via REUTERS

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2 min

The South Korean government proposed a few weeks ago a reform of working time to "relax" the legal duration of 52 hours per week. This was to allow employees to work nearly 14 hours a day to allow companies to cope with periods of high activity, and then make up for these overtime.

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With our correspondent in Seoul, Nicolas Rocca

According to the government, making weekly working hours more flexible was supposed to be a desire of "Generation MZ", the nickname given in Korea to people aged between 18 and 40. But this was without counting on the disagreement of young people and many trade unions in a country where people work nearly 200 hours more each year than the average of OECD countries.

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I think the very idea of allowing this length of working time is a proposal that will produce even more exploitation even though people work a lot and are often overworked in our society, said Kwon Su-jeong, 23, a management student. Proposing this new 69-hour period like this at short notice is a way to regress society and the labour market. An opinion shared by other young South Koreans who expressed it on social networks or through banners on university campuses.

The president backs down

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I am convinced that working more than 60 hours a week is not reasonable from the point of view of health protection, President Yoon Suk-yeol said Tuesday. Of course, I know that some people think that this is a step backwards in relation to the policy of flexible working time. But it is difficult to protect the health rights of vulnerable people in the labour market if we do not set a certain number of working hours per week.

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When he was a candidate, he argued for a maximum of 120 hours per week, or 68 hours of overtime that employees could then make up for in leave. In South Korea, nearly 80% of workers say they are not allowed to take the two weeks of annual vacation provided by law.

►Also listen: 8 billion neighbours - South Korea: all addicted to work? [in 2015]

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Read on on the same topics:

  • South Korea
  • Employment and Labour
  • Social issues
  • Yoon Suk-yeol