People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won on Wednesday criticized Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon for repeatedly hesitating on President Lee Jae Myung's statement that performance bonuses are not subject to industrial action, saying the minister's reluctance appeared to stem from his ties to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.
"Stop deferring to others if you want the mega special zone to succeed," Na said at a plenary session of the National Assembly's climate, energy, environment and labor committee, where she questioned the Ministry of Employment and Labor on current policy issues. "Otherwise, people will start saying South Korea is run by the KCTU."
Na also called for expanding exemptions from the 52-hour workweek to cover research workers across all industries. "The government is pushing military airport relocations at full speed, yet it keeps tiptoeing around workers on the 52-hour rule," she said. "The country is fighting an economic war — this is a national battle, not a regional one."
She raised concerns about the problems with the 52-hour rule and the risk of regional discrimination, pointing in particular to discussions within the ruling party about exempting research workers from the limit in connection with the Honam semiconductor mega-project, and criticizing the government for its slow response.
Na identified the yellow-envelope law as the primary obstacle to corporate investment. She also took aim at the ministry for initially insisting on reinforcing guidelines rather than revising subordinate regulations as the president had directed, before belatedly agreeing to review the matter. "Minister Kim seems quite bold," she said. "It takes two presidential directives before we finally get an answer that a review will be considered."
Na doubled down on the need for the amendment bill she had introduced as the lead sponsor, arguing that the yellow-envelope law's fundamental ambiguity could not be resolved through subordinate regulations alone. "The law itself is built on vague provisions, and patching it with lower-level rules falls far short," she said. "To resolve the countless conflicts it has caused, the law itself must be amended to narrow the definition of employer and limit the scope of permissible industrial action."
Directing her sharpest criticism at Minister Kim, Na argued that the current government's employment and labor policies were blocking corporate investment and youth job creation. She urged the ministry to pursue substantive legal reform and deregulation, saying it had consistently deferred to the KCTU on both the 52-hour workweek and the yellow-envelope law.
mp1256@heraldcorp.com
