(EDITORIAL from the Korea Herald on Aug. 1) - Backward politics

Quite a few Koreans regard politicians and political parties as doing more harm
than good. This perception is markedly noticeable among businesspeople, as
evidenced by a business leader's recent remarks.
At a business conference on Jeju Island this week, Cho Suk-rae, chairman of the
Federation of Korean Industries, accused politicians of creating more conflicts
than they resolve. He said they are failing to fulfill their responsibility of
coordinating demands from diverse groups of people and channeling them into a
shared goal of society.
Cho took as examples the conflicts over the issue of amending laws concerning
irregular workers and the ongoing strike at Ssangyong Motor Co. He claimed the
attempts to resolve those conflicts have been heavily in favor of labor,
reflecting few of the business community's concerns.
Corporations, he said, find it difficult to ramp up investment at a time when
militant unions are holding sway over the nation's key agenda items. Observing
that the political parties are easily tempted to turn the National Assembly into
a battleground, he said, "I would like to ask what help the political community
has given us in turning the ailing economy around."
The view Cho holds against lawmakers and their parties is by no means neutral. It
certainly reflects the strong anti-labor sentiments held by the business
community. After all, Cho represents the Federation of Korean Industries, the
powerful lobby of business conglomerates.
Cho's remarks invited criticism from politicians, including Rep. Chung Mong-joon
of the Grand National Party, who said that such an unwarranted attack would
undermine the legitimate authority of politicians and political parties, instead
of helping raise the bar for Korean politics.
Nonetheless, Cho's remarks contain a grain of truth. A case in point is the
political community's failure to revise the laws concerning the status of
irregular workers and a ban on keeping them on payrolls beyond the two-year
contract period.
The ruling Grand National Party abandoned its efforts to rewrite the laws in the
face of stiff resistance from unions and the opposition Democratic Party. As a
consequence, businesses employing irregular workers are forced to make a choice
between firing them at the end of the contract and retaining them by making them
regular workers.
Neither of the choices is pleasing to the business community, which demands
greater flexibility in staffing worksites. Worse, a large number of irregular
workers, if not as many as the administration initially anticipated, are being
laid off each day.
The ruling party's attempt to double the statutory two-year contract period, had
it been made successful, would nonetheless have been nothing but a stopgap
measure. It would have provided no solution to the fundamental staffing problem -
labor market rigidity.
In Korea, it is nearly impossible for corporations to lay off unionized regular
workers. Moreover, it is much more costly to hire people as regular workers. As
such, businesses mostly turn to irregular workers when it comes to staffing their
shops and assembly lines. No wonder regular workers now account for only a third
of the nation's workforce.
Like it or not, the ruling party will have to wait until the National Assembly
opens its 100-day regular session in September before making a fresh attempt to
revise the laws. During the run-up to the session, it will do well to study ways
to make it easier for corporations to lay off regular workers during a business
downturn and employ irregular workers beyond the current two-year contract.
If the labor markets are made more flexible, businesses will be encouraged to
invest more and thus create more jobs. There would be few better ways for a
political party to endear itself to voters than to provide jobs during these
times of economic hardship.
(END)