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The chairman of the Korea Employers Federation on Thursday threatened the government with a mass exodus of businesses if it continues to favor trade unions. "If the government and politicians favor only trade unions, as they do now, businesspeople will go on a strike. In other words, we will shut down and leave for China, India and Bangladesh, which will result in a shrinking job market and increasing unemployment,¡± Lee Soo-young told a press conference.
"The problem with politicians is that they are not aware of and insensitive to difficulties faced by businesses,¡± Lee said. He added today's trade unions ¡°are more political or ideological organizations than economic ones, which is very confusing for businesses.¡±
The business organization is against a labor market law before the National Assembly that is designed to address discrimination and differences between regular and non-regular workers because it feels flexibility in the labor market needs to be protected. ¡°Politicians are mistaken if they think protecting non-regular workers will help the economy and narrow the income gap,¡± he said.
Lee expressed concern that if such bills are passed to woo voters in the local elections in May, it will hurt corporate competitiveness and with it the driving force behind economic growth.
The KEF insists that if salaries of non-regular workers are raised by law to the level of regular workers¡¯, businesses will have to shoulder an additional W42.6 trillion (US$42.6 billion) in cost, of which W39.7 trillion will have to be borne by small and medium-sized enterprises.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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