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Top officials from labor, management and the government began talks yesterday to defuse growing labor tension amid threats of strike action from automobile, metal and hospital workers.
The leaders mapped out their agenda and pledged to make their best efforts in trying to reinstate the Korea Tripartite Commission, a presidential consultative group that has been inactive for five years.

The six-member panel, with two representatives from the three parties, will focus their efforts on reforming the commission, a Labor Ministry official said after the meeting.

The three-way commission was crippled after the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the smaller but more militant of the nation's two umbrella labor groups, withdrew in early 1999.

The group has demanded changes in decision-making procedures at the commission to ensure a greater say for the labor side.

At the meeting yesterday, the leaders agreed that their dialogue channel will remain open until the end of August before the KCTU rejoins the three-way commission. Other contentious labor issues will be dealt with by the commission, panel members said.

Despite increased dialogue between labor leaders and business lobbies, a fresh round of labor struggle is expected in less than two weeks.

Issues that remain unresolved during the annual wage bargaining between labor and management include improving working conditions for irregular workers and adjusting wages and holidays in line with a shortened 40-hour workweek.

According to a statement from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, workers at 121 hospitals nationwide will go on strike Thursday. The union organization claims that negotiations broke down due to management not taking the negotiations seriously.

The metal workers' union, grouping manufacturing worksites for automobiles and parts, will add its muscle to the labor front by going on a partial walkout June 16. The taxi drivers' union has also threatened a general strike the same day.

The opening of the temporary dialogue channel was part of an agreement reached Monday during a three-way discussion headed by President Roh Moo-hyun, who is seeking measures to bring the sluggish domestic economy back on track to achieve 6 percent growth this year.

(smkim@heraldm.com)


By Kim Sung-mi

5 / 6 / 2004