“[Newsmaker] Doubts rise over S. Korea’s willingness to ratify ILO conventions”, 23 June 2019

In the midst of a yearlong standoff between the government, labor and management over South Korea’s ratification of fundamental International Labor Organization conventions, trade unions are increasingly questioning the Moon Jae-in administration’s willingness to approve three of the four pending ones…

Members of the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions call for the release of KCTU President Kim Myung-hwan, who was arrested… and to stop the oppression of the labor sector, during a rally near Cheong Wa Dae in central Seoul…

The KCTU is one of the largest labor groups with some 1 million members.

“Working hours are the highest in Korea among OECD member nations. Working hours are three months more (per year) than Germany and a month more than Japan. It also has the highest rate of industrial accidents and the highest ratio of nonregular workers. This is the reality,” said Shin In-su, legal director of the KCTU...

“Ratifying key ILO conventions to improve the working environment to 70 percent to 80 percent of international levels is the most adequate choice for Korea’s reality,” Shin said…

… Under pressure from labor unions to sign the conventions prior to legislative changes, the Moon administration has made it clear that it is working to pass three of the four pending ILO conventions -- No. 87 regarding freedom of association and protection of the right to organize, No. 98 on the right to organize and collective bargaining, and No. 29 about abolition of forced labor -- at the next regular National Assembly session in September…

On the other side of the debate, the Korea Employers Federation, which has been pushing for conditional ratification of the ILO conventions, stuck with its long-held argument that approving the conventions would bestow excessive authority to the already powerful labor unions…

...South Korea vowed to make efforts to ratify the ILO conventions in the 2011 FTA it signed with the EU.

South Korea joined the ILO in December 1991 and became the 152nd member country. So far, it has ratified 29 of its 189 conventions.