(EDITORIAL from the Korea Times on Jan. 31) - Too business-friendly

President Lee Myung-bak, elected on a campaign pledge of creating 600,000 jobs annually, seems really obsessed with employment: Lee links almost everything the government does, such as refurbishing four major rivers, building cross-country waterways and even allowing newspapers to jump into network broadcasting, to job creation.

The President's job-creating eagerness should be commended but his
policy direction should not.
A case in point is the government's move to revise the law on temporary workers
toward extending the statutory employment period before turning them into
permanent employees to four years from the present two, and expanding the
category of industries permitted to hire these temps ??? or "permatemps," as some
foreign academics call these employees doing the same work as their permanent
co-workers do but receiving far fewer benefits, including lower wages.
The Ministry of Labor says that without the revision, the jobs of up to one
million temps will be in danger around July, as recession-stricken employers
would rather sack these non-staff workers than make them staff members, stressing
it is aimed at protecting laborers.
There is certainly such a possibility, but that's far from the purpose of the law
??? improving employment quality for more people by gradually narrowing the gap
between temporary and permanent workers ??? which should not be changed even
before really trying once, under the pretext of an "unprecedented" economic
crisis.
The government's duty is to encourage such a transfer or elevation with various
tax and other financial incentives, not to expand and even perpetuate these
irregular forms of employment. Such could have been the case if the government
had not given tax cuts for the 1 percent of wealthy people, resulting in about
$15 billion in lost revenue.
Equally disappointing are the Lee administration's moves to legislate its
job-sharing program, based on mandatory wage cuts. Hiring more people by paying
less to each of them may be inevitable amid a recession. But this, too, is not
something that the government may enforce by law, only encourage with incentives.
Labor market analysts say even if the government manages to legislate the
program, it won't be able to effectively implement it due to budget constraints.
The temporary work system, introduced in earnest in the wake of the Asian
financial crisis 11 years ago, has been the main culprit behind income
polarization, or the so-called 20-80 society. The Lee administration's latest
move to expand the system would further widen the gap when the economy begins to
recover.
President Lee and his aides should realize the massive popular demonstrations
sweeping Europe are not the proverbial "fire on the other side of the river."
Global workers are refusing to accept the reality of having sacrifices demanded
of them during this time of crisis created by a wayward financial industry and
negligent bureaucrats.
Most of all, the expansion and perpetuation of a temporary employment system
sharply degrades a country's economy and industry by seriously affecting sound
business management and workers' sound work ethics, which explains why
maintaining the quality of employment is more important than blindly increasing
the number of jobs, which are little more than simple errands.
Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" was more about enhanced labor rights than a
public works program. The self-declared business-friendly administration in Korea
is going exactly the opposite way, giving more ammunition to critics, who say the
economic crisis is giving Seoul opportunities to carry out a neo-liberalistic
policy agenda.
(END)