[Editorial] To End Labor Dispute Confusion, Clear Delegation and Standards Must Be Established in Primary Law

On September 3, the Ministry of Employment and Labor released the "Guidelines on Labor Dispute Subjects such as Performance-Based Bonuses." The guidelines clarified that demands for bonuses linked to operating profit (such as a certain percentage of performance-based pay) or management decisions like establishing or relocating factories, acquiring or selling businesses, or introducing new technologies are not considered subjects of labor disputes. The government established these standards in response to ongoing, unproductive debates and arbitrary interpretations of the scope of disputes following the implementation of the so-called Yellow Envelope Law (amendments to Articles 2 and 3 of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act).

However, it is clear that these guidelines, lacking legal binding force, will only add to the confusion rather than resolve the issue. The guidelines assert that the establishment of new factories itself is not subject to labor disputes, yet they also state that if specific changes in working conditions—such as job reassignment or changes in duties or workplace—are anticipated, negotiation and disputes are possible. When a new factory is built, personnel reassignment inevitably follows, and the introduction of automated equipment will naturally result in job and staffing adjustments. Since it is difficult to separate management decisions from the personnel issues arising from their implementation, in practice, investment decisions themselves effectively become the subject of labor disputes.

The starting point for these guidelines was President Lee Jaemyung’s remark that "if simply building a factory in Gwangju could be the subject of a dispute because employees might be transferred, then no exercise of management rights would be unrelated, and this logic would have no end." However, the current guidelines do not address this question. If labor and management interpret the matter differently and a dispute arises, the legitimacy of the dispute will ultimately be determined by the Labor Relations Commission and the courts. If each case results in litigation to clarify the boundaries, the guidelines may prove to be nothing more than a stopgap that merely postpones legal battles.

The fundamental problem lies in the parent law itself. The revised Trade Union Act significantly expanded the scope of collective disputes without clearly defining its limits or providing any basis for specifying the details by enforcement decree. Even though it may take time and require persuasive efforts in the National Assembly, a fundamental legislative approach is necessary. The intent should be to substantively guarantee workers' collective bargaining rights while allowing both labor and management to predict where the limits of those rights lie. There must be clear delegation provisions in the parent law and detailed boundaries between essential management decisions and changes in working conditions that are subject to negotiation or labor disputes must be specified by enforcement decree.

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