Na Kyung-won criticizes Lee for 'flip-flopping' on corporate, labor policy

People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won on Wednesday criticized President Lee Jae Myung for repeatedly reversing his positions on corporate and labor policy based on political interests, saying the inconsistency was harming both the public and businesses.

In a Facebook post Wednesday, Na cited Lee's recent statement that demands by major conglomerate unions to distribute a fixed percentage of operating profit — the so-called "N% profit-sharing" demand — "cannot be subject to labor disputes." She said such conduct amounted to unprincipled governance. "Statecraft without principles, and labor policy that shifts with vote calculations, throws the national economy into chaos," she said.

Na questioned what the government had done just two months earlier, when Samsung Electronics workers staged a general strike using bonus demands as leverage. "The labor minister, who came from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, personally stepped in and actively pressured the company's autonomous management decisions," she said.

She said the government had not hesitated to intervene in what amounted to an abuse of authority, treating the strike as though it were effectively legal. "And now they say it cannot be subject to a labor dispute," Na added. "Meanwhile, they are suppressing union opposition to their own election-driven scheme to force semiconductor investment into the Honam region."

Na went on to say it was Lee and the Democratic Party who had originally created a lawless environment on the industrial front. "Who was it that pushed through the so-called 'Yellow Envelope Act,' which violates companies' constitutionally protected property rights and freedom of management, just to win votes?" she said. "They opened up all manner of management decisions to labor disputes on the grounds that they affect working conditions — so why are they now pressuring unions to keep the Honam semiconductor issue off the bargaining table?"

Na called on the government to act on Lee's stated position by amending what she described as toxic clauses in labor relations law, so that neither state power nor unions could use profit-sharing demands as leverage to seize control over companies' inherent management and investment decisions. "Let us enshrine in law, clearly, the president's own words — that N% bonus demands and indiscriminate management interference are not legitimate subjects of labor disputes," she said. "That is the responsible thing to do for those who created this mess."