[Free Speech] Why the 52-Hour Workweek System Needs Reform

In light of today’s advanced and diversified economy and industrial structure, the 52-hour workweek is a system that no longer fits an era of manufacturing-centered industrialization. This system is now being expanded across industry as a whole. In response, the small and medium-sized business sector has stressed that side effects such as lower wages for workers and labor shortages are emerging under the 52-hour workweek, making institutional supplementation urgently necessary.

Japan, which first introduced the 40-hour workweek 30 years ago, still faces many problems stemming from shorter working hours. On the surface, only working hours have been reduced, while target management and work methods have remained unchanged. This can be seen as an example of the side effects that arise when only working hours are forcibly reduced without changing the nature or method of work.

In Korea as well, where the 52-hour workweek has been fully introduced, similar problems to those seen in Japan are occurring because working hours have been shortened without any fundamental reform in the way work is done. The 52-hour workweek, which limits maximum weekly working hours, is being uniformly applied to workplaces, creating problems such as hindering the fostering of startups.

To address these problems with the 52-hour workweek, the Yoon Suk Yeol administration is discussing ways to maintain the basic framework of the system while reforming its operating methods and implementation tools. The “Direction for Promoting Labor Market Reform” announced by the Ministry of Employment and Labor is as follows.

By expanding the “overtime management unit,” overtime hours, which are currently managed on a weekly basis, would be allowed to be managed on a monthly basis. Under the current Labor Standards Act, overtime work is permitted for up to 12 hours per week, but if this is managed in four-week units, more than 12 hours of overtime in a given week would become possible. This would make the 52-hour workweek, currently bound to a weekly basis, more flexible.

The government also announced policies to help resolve difficulties in managing working hours for startups and professionals by introducing a “working time savings account system,” which allows accumulated overtime hours to be used as leave, and by expanding the settlement period for the selective work-hour system. Through this, workers can achieve a better work-life balance.

It also announced that the wage system would be reformed. It said it would improve systems related to continued employment and pursue fair compensation based on ability through measures such as establishing a “Korean-style job-based wage information system.” This could help resolve polarization and unfairness in the labor market.

As such, the core of this reform is to make the 52-hour workweek, currently tied to a weekly basis, more flexible. It is also a strategy to ease regulations on employers, create jobs to address youth unemployment, and in that process make use of workers’ diverse needs.

The 52-hour workweek is like clothes that do not fit the body when viewed against today’s advanced, diversified economy and a manufacturing-centered industrial structure. It must be reformed into a system suited to the labor norms and practices formed during the industrialization era. Moreover, in order to address the accumulated inefficiencies, polarization, and unfairness of the labor market, and to respond proactively to the current industrial restructuring and labor transition, reform of the 52-hour workweek is a task that can no longer be postponed.

Hanbyeol Wang, Intern Researcher, Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)

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Original title: [자유발언대] 주 52시간제 개편이 필요한 이유

Author: Han-byeol Wang

Date: 2022-09-23

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=free_opinion&pn=8&idx=24975