South Korea’s opposition-dominated National Assembly unanimously passed the landmark Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act, on Thursday, November 9, as the country witnesses rising trade unionism and labor mobilization.
The bill, commonly known as the “yellow envelope bill”, was passed with a vote of 173 lawmakers and one abstention, while all ruling People Power Party (PPP) legislators boycotted the session in protest. It was passed along with three bills on broadcasting governance reforms, as filibuster attempts by the PPP fell through on Thursday.
The new labor bill will significantly expand labor rights to include indirectly employed workers and also limit channels for employers to sue workers and trade unions for damage claims in response to strikes and labor action.
Once enacted, the bill will amend Articles 2 and 3 of the Trade Unions Act and bring in a dynamic shift to industrial relations in South Korea, where despite a large working class movement laws have historically allowed targeting workers for industrial actions.
The bill, commonly called the “yellow envelope bill”, has been a long-standing demand of trade unions and workers’ movements, in response to the suppression of workers involved in the 2009 SsangYong Motors strike.
The 77-day strike had thousands of workers organized by the Korea Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU), an affiliate of Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), fighting a restructuring plan that involved layoffs and illegal termination of over 2,600 workers at SsangYong Motors (now KG Mobility), after the company claimed bankruptcy.
The strike was met with heavy state repression that also included dozens of arrests, and at least 30 documented deaths during and after the strike due to suicide or trauma caused of the violent suppression.
Moreover, five years later, the strike was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court and the workers were held liable to damages to the tune of KRW 4.7 billion (USD 3.6 million).
At the time, trade unions and social movements came out to support the strikers by delivering money in yellow envelopes, while also highlighting the unfair laws that allow employers and the state to sue workers for genuine strikes.
Even though the bankruptcy and the consequent layoffs were later held to be illegal and based on exaggerated figures by the management at the time, the demand for better laws protecting workers’ rights have continued. The “yellow envelope bill” was an outcome of such mobilizations.
The legislation comes at a time when workers around the country have been resorting to concerted industrial actions to demand for better wages and working conditions, and also for job security amid widespread outsourcing and subcontracting.
South Korean corporations are infamous for contracting out or outsourcing workforce to smaller contractors, leaving workers employed under such schemes being paid considerably lesser than full-time employees doing the same work, estimated to be 54% the full-time wages.
The new bill, if passed, could give these workers the right to bargain with the primary contractor for equal wages.
Nevertheless, the bill requires the presidential assent to be enacted as law. President Yoon Seok-yeol, leader of the PPP and a conservative hardliner, is being asked by his party and various business groups to veto the bill.
The opposition Democratic Party, which has spearheaded the bill, is far short of the 199 votes necessary to override a presidential veto. But with growing labor mobilizations, the pressure is on the president and the ruling party to heed to workers’ demands and concerns.
