The employment and labor subcommittee of the parliamentary environment and labor committee on March 23 continued to examine the amendment bill of the Labor Standards Act to limit the weekly working hours to 52 hours at the maximum which shall include the holiday work as the overtime work in calculating the weekly working hours.

The subcommittee in the first round of legislative examination agreed in principle that a week is 7 days in a row and the maximum weekly working hours are 52 hours. However, the subcommittee this time was unable to reach an agreement on the amendment bill, due to the appearance of new contentious issues; 1)exceptional four years of grace period for the companies employing less than 300 with additional 8 hours on top of 52 hours limit, 2)double premium rate of 50% or 100% in the case of holiday work, and 3)expansion of flexible working hours.

The subcommittee will reportedly have another round of examination on the amendment bill, due to time constraint in the legislative examination on March 23.

reported by Yon Yoon-jeong
translated by Kim Sung-jin