Business associations call for drastic changes to overtime regulations

• Published date: 06 March 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

Business associations are demanding the government take further steps in expanding overtime limits to help employers better meet production needs under the broader context of labor reform, according to industry officials, Monday.

Propelling the collective demands by major employers' groups is years of frustration and uncertainties in business planning, brought on mostly by frequent threats and actual strikes of unionized workers. Those almost always led to wasting time and corporate resources, hindering effective and timely management decisions critical to businesses' survival and profit generation.

They say workers refusing to take on extra hours amid short-term high output demands puts corporate growth prospects at risk and ends up undercutting trust with buyers that would not otherwise hesitate to seek committed long-term partnerships.

The government announced earlier in the day that the current weekly 12-hour overtime limit will be increased to 29 hours per week. If a break of 11 hours straight is not guaranteed, the overtime will be limited to 24 hours.

"More bold measures and certainties are needed," Kim Ki-moon, chairman of the Korea Federation of SMEs (KBIZ), a group representing the interests of small and medium-sized enterprises, said during a press conference in Yeouido, Seoul.

In Kim's view, expanding the workweek to a maximum 69 hours is a step in the right direction but it is still far from enough when compared to Japan's system whereby the ceiling for overtime is set at 100 hours per month or 720...