Employment and Labor Minister Bang Ha-nam Monday called for the labor and management to hold a tripartite meeting to discuss wage issues. It was a timely, meaningful proposal, given the attention this matter is receiving from investors at home and abroad.
But Minister Bang dimmed the chances of actually realizing such a conference, let alone reaching any agreement, with his subsequent remarks. “A Supreme Court ruling should not necessarily change the existing laws and system,” he said. “We hope the labor side will attend the meeting with a responsible attitude.”
The labor minister thus virtually denied the effects of the top court’s ruling more than a year ago to include bonuses as part of ordinary wage packages, while pressuring unions to refrain from making what he viewed as undue demands.
Bang’s comments leave numerous questions. Does the top policymaker in labor affairs represent labor or management? Is he trying to remain neutral at all regarding sensitive labor issues or siding with the industry? How can an administrative official make comments threatening the independence of the three branches of state? And how can the former researcher of labor affairs reveal his ignorance by trying to belittle the Supreme Court’s ruling just because it was not a full court’s decision?
Come to think of it, the labor minister was just following the example of his boss ― President Park Geun-hye ― who promised GM’s chairman, Daniel Akerson, to find a “reasonable solution” to the wage package issue, during her recent visit to the United States. Her promise had at least two problems: it exceeded her authority as the head of executive branch, and left the impression that Korea is still a developing country in that woos foreign investors with low wages.
The ordinary wage, which serves as the base pay for most allowances, has been kept at an abnormally low level here by accounting for slightly more than half of total wages, to help employers minimize severance payments. Businesses have also resorted to overtime work and holiday work by excluding these payments from bonuses, and ordinary wages. The top court’s ruling was part of society’s efforts to rectify this abnormal wage structure and corporate exploitation of workers’ wages.
Business lobbies say the inclusion of bonuses into standard wage packages would lead to a jobs crisis and further widen income disparity. The former excuse is a direct threat and the latter is hypocrisy. On the contrary, the normalization of wage structure would have the effect of raising minimum wages by expanding base payments, improve productivity by inducing employers to shorten working hours, and contribute to fairer redistribution of wealth by rewarding the hardest-working, lowest-paid workers.
In the longer term, a shift of money from conglomerates’ coffers to workers’ pockets will enliven the economy. Most importantly for President Park, it is a good political move drawing workers to her party.