President Lee Jae-myung speaks at the 31st Cabinet meeting held at the Blue House on the 21st. Blue House Press Corps
President Lee Jae-myung said on the 21st that unions’ demands for companies to distribute “N% of operating profit” may not qualify as subjects of labor disputes. “Is the issue of distributing a certain percentage of operating profit a subject of a labor dispute?” he said. “I think it is more likely that it is not.” Expressing concern over the excessive expansion of the scope of labor disputes, he called on the government to establish clear criteria for judgment.
Speaking at a Cabinet meeting held at the Blue House that day, Lee made the remarks regarding the scope of labor disputes, saying it “seems to be expanding too broadly.”
Lee also mentioned the backlash from the Samsung Electronics union over the construction of a semiconductor plant at Gwangju military airport. “There are claims that it becomes ‘a subject of labor-management negotiations and labor disputes,’ which has shocked the public,” he said. “By that logic, there is nothing about any company’s exercise of management rights that would not be related. If done this way, there would be no end to it.” This is interpreted as making clear that, separate from guaranteeing labor rights, essential management decisions such as corporate investment, production, and business strategy are not subjects of labor disputes.
Regarding the situation in which company unions are successively demanding the distribution of “N% of operating profit,” Lee also instructed the government to establish clear standards at the government level. “There can be management decisions related to working conditions, but the boundaries are ambiguous,” he said. “Providing certain standards regarding labor law is also the government’s role.”
In particular, Lee requested a close review of dispute cases that have arisen since the implementation of the Yellow Envelope Act, stressing, “Before matters go to court, if necessary, please (have the Ministry of Employment and Labor) organize guidelines corresponding to presidential decrees or enforcement rules. That is how social disputes can be reduced.”
Regarding single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Lee said that day, “There were policy effects for stabilizing the exchange rate, but there is criticism that they fueled more market instability than necessary,” and instructed, “Prepare swift and thorough supplementary measures.”