Korea Labor Foundation shifts focus to preventive labor-management coaching, supporting 97 workplaces

The Korea Labor Foundation has overhauled its labor-management cooperation program, shifting from financial assistance to on-site coaching and conflict prevention, and has extended support to 97 workplaces.

The foundation said Thursday it would hold a best-practice benchmarking workshop over two days starting Thursday, visiting Kooksoondang in Hoengseong, Gangwon Province, with representatives from workplaces participating in its 2026 Win-Win Partnership Comprehensive Support Project.

Revamped this year for the first time in three years, the Win-Win Partnership project's defining feature is the full introduction of "on-site support coaching," in which experts visit workplaces directly to facilitate dialogue between labor and management. The aim is to reduce the sources of conflict in advance through direct communication on the ground, rather than responding after disputes have already broken out.

Financial support has already reached its target of 100 workplaces. On-site coaching has been provided to 97 workplaces, putting the program on the verge of hitting its own 100-workplace goal. The scope of support has also expanded beyond individual workplaces to include industry- and regional-level councils.

Kooksoondang, where the workshop is being held, won an excellence award at the 2021 Labor-Management Partnership Competition. The company has continued its contractor cooperation activities this year, including improving communication with suppliers and enhancing working conditions. Participants examined Kooksoondang's primary contractor-subcontractor cooperation model, its approach to labor-management communication, and its record of improving working conditions.

On Friday, the program will feature sessions on sharing best practices in workplace labor culture and strengthening conflict-resolution capabilities. Representatives from participating workplaces will discuss ways to bridge differences between labor and management and design preventive partnership frameworks suited to their individual workplace conditions.

Park Jong-pil, secretary-general of the Korea Labor Foundation, said the key to breaking through gridlock on the ground is "a partnership that accepts the other side as they are," adding that "efforts are needed to create a space where labor and management can sit down and talk, and to start by finding even small areas of common ground."

The foundation plans to hold a second benchmarking workshop next month at Vitzrocell, sharing the company's experience using flexible work arrangements to reduce long working hours. Vitzrocell received the presidential award at the 2024 Labor-Management Culture Grand Prize.