Limits of Labor Bias

Posted by AsiaViews | Oct 2, 2017 | 0 |

KOREA

The Korea Herald

Sept 27, 2017

Precluding labor market flexibility will hinder youth employment.

The recent abolition of two labor reform guidelines put forth by the previous government is expected to produce no little effect on both labor and employers. One guideline was to allow fair dismissal of underperforming employees and the other to make it easier for employers to revise the rules of employment to their advantage.

With the scrapping of the guidelines, the prospect of labor market flexibility has been taken off the table.

The Park Geun-hye administration drew up the guidelines after finding the labor market too rigid to adapt to a rapidly changing global business environment. Under the current Labor Standards Act, dismissals are very difficult. The act stipulates few grounds for firing an employee except for disciplinary action or massive layoffs. The difficulty of dismissals has enable major labor unions to cement their vested rights.

The Moon Jae-in administration has pushed pro-labor policies since his inauguration. It seeks to convert all outsourced workers to regular employees of outsourcing companies, nullified performance-based competitive pay systems in the public sector, increased minimum wage sharply and is pushing to reduce legal working hours. All of these measures work toward making the labor market more rigid and increasing labor costs.

To make matters worse, a court ruled recently to expand the scope of the base wage, incurring back wages.

In an increasingly difficult management environment, companies have begun to curtail new hiring, with some considering overseas relocation.

With the guidelines scrapped when they face pressure to employ outsourced workers and a drastic hike in minimum wage, employers have been left with little to do about employees once they are hired. Companies are now on guard when it comes to hiring new employees.

Furthermore, businesses are beset by unanticipated losses.

Reportedly, losses due to China’s economic retaliation for the deployment of an advanced US anti-missile system are expected to surge to 22.4 trillion won ($19.6 billion). Bills for back wages which may be imposed on 115 companies currently involved in base wage lawsuits are projected to reach 38.55 trillion won.

Despite the difficult situation facing businesses, the government tends to treat them more as a target of reform than of support.

Recently, the Labor Ministry instructed Paris Baguette, one of the largest Korean bakery chains, to hire all its outsourced bakers who work at franchises across the country.

These labor policies go counter to those of developed economies to make labor movement flexible and efficient to stay ahead in the dawning age of the “fourth industrial revolution,” which is expected to see the loss of many unskilled jobs.

Policies of the Moon administration that are supportive of companies are hard to find. It won’t listen to their demands for the relaxation of regulations. This contrasts against China, whose companies are on the heels of Korean competitors, backed by government support.

Without government policies to prop up corporate competitiveness, the economic situation may fall behind expectations.

Labor reform is one of the pressing jobs for the Korean economy. Not only domestic economic circles, but international organizations also point to the outdated and rigid Korean labor sector as its Achilles heel.

Blocking labor flexibility will benefit existing laborers of large companies. As a result, the population of young job seekers will increase and low-wage working conditions in subcontractors to large companies will worsen.

South Korea’s April jobless rate of youth aged 15 to 24 rose by 2.5 percentage points from last December, marking by far the largest increase among the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development members.

This is largely due to a failure to make the labor market flexible and resolve the bipolarization of working conditions under the strong influence of labor unions of large companies.

The abolition of the two guidelines was a retrogressive step to run against labor reform. The stronger voice of labor unions under the Moon administration will narrow the room in which it will be able to maneuver to create jobs.

Labor policies lacking measures to raise labor productivity will not be sustained in the rapid current of industrial change.

(source:http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170927000488)

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Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.

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Limits of Labor Bias