Lawmakers with the National Assembly Environment & Labor Committee and SME businessmen with the Korea Federation of SMEs (KBIZ) gesture as they attended a meeting on labor policies on Sept. 25. (Photo:KBIZ)

The Korea Federation of SMEs (KBIZ) urged the government to delay the implementation of the 52-hour workweek, which is to be enforced starting next year for the firms with over 50 employees.

The request was made at a Sept. 25 meeting with members of the National Assembly’s Environment and Labor Committee, including Rep. Kim Hak-yong, chairman of the committee, and Vice Minister Lim Suh-jung of the Employment and Labor Ministry.

The federation proposed a year-long delay for the new workweek system, noting that companies with over 300 employees had 9 months to get used to the new system, which will be hard considering the economic slowdown and Korea-Japan trade friction.

An official of the federation said the small and medium business firms have been allowing their employees to work overtime, even during official holidays, to be able to meet delivery expectations of the contracted goods on time. It’s impossible to introduce the new workweek system when they have yet to hire new employees to take over the manpower shortages created by the new system.

They also called for an extension of the 3-month temporary work period for temporarily hired workers for a year, not just 3 months. Chairman Kim Ki-mun of the KBIZ, said managements of the business firms are tired as they face manpower shortages from the new workweek system when they should focus on the development of technologies, with the current economic situation as sluggish as it is.

The chairman said that the government has more important issues to take care of, including deregulation and labor reform to reflect what the major economic players want from the government, as they are needed to reverse the slowing economy.

The government ought to listen the voices at jobsites. It should take necessary measures that are realistic enough to ease the impact of the new short workweek on industry.

The government introduced the 52-hour workweek on July 1 last year for companies with more than 300 employees. Starting this month, 21 categories of business that were previously exempt, including finance and bus transportation, have to abide by the change.

Although businesses have called for complementary legislation to ease the transition, a total of 15 related bills have yet to pass the National Assembly.

They argue that the maximum period for flexible working hours, in which daily work hours can exceed the maximum limit as long as the entire period averages to the weekly limit, should be extended from the current two-week period.

Business lobby group Korea Economic Research Institute has suggested that shipbuilding and petrochemical companies be approved for extended work hours during certain periods because keeping the workweek limit is realistically impossible.

A refining company faced losses after implementing a new work schedule during an inspection of its production facility in the first quarter.

It was the first routine maintenance since the adoption of the 52-hour workweek, so it opted to expedite the workload through more workers. The inspection, however, took much longer than expected.

Workers simply could not work for more than 52 hours a week, so workflow continuity suffered. Workers can work overtime for a week on the condition that the company receives permission from the Minister of Employment and Labor and the worker’s consent. Currently, these approvals can only be received during instances of disaster.

“Regular maintenance occurs every one to three years and is conducted for around three months after shutting down the factory,” said a manager. “The longer the maintenance takes, the greater the loss.”