[KS] Lifetime employment

[Carl Ames]

From:   Carl Ames, =

To:     INTERNET:korean-studies at mailbase.ac.uk,
INTERNET:korean-studies at mailbase.ac.uk
        =

Date:   8/12/1998  9:13 AM

RE:     Lifetime employment

A partial answer I believe lies in the Labor Standards Act of Korea.  My
understanding is that this act, or court interpretations of it, states th=
at
employees can only be fired for cause (meaning bad acts or incompetence).=
 =

This means that free hiring and firing of employees like in the US does
not, in theory, exist.  I was told, by  a Korean lawyer, that the LSA was=

written in a very generous way toworkers so that it would compare favorab=
ly
with North Korea's labor codes!  When it was written, under the Park
regime, it was not enforced strongly, but after democratization, the cour=
ts
began to enforce it.

This system is not exactly "lifetime employment", but it could be
interpreted that way.  THere have been several attempts by the government=

and the chaebol to allow an exception for layoffs in the course of =

corporate structure reorganizations and some of the chaebol are testing
this possibility now.  =


That is the theory, but the reality seems to be that small businesses hav=
e
more latitude in getting rid of employees.  ONly in the chaebol, with
powerful unions, does labor have the power to protect the jobs of
employees.  When I get the time I will look into this more.

Another factor to consider is the patriarchal Confucian social background=

in Korea.  Since workers are in a sense part of a "family" relationship
with the owners, it is a duty of the owners to do what they can for the
welfare of their employees.

Carl Ames


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