비공식 고용과 노동법

초록

The biggest problem in Korea, extreme social and economical bipolarization, actually stems from labour realm. Most of Korean workers, starting from the irregular workers hired in small shops, worked hired in mid-size business to even regular workers in big business, are working under abnormal conditions. Abnormality of labour conditions is an indicator that there is a great gap between regulations under the labour law and actual realities. Although inconsistency between law and reality might have existed in all countries, it is quite significant in Korean labour law. Another salient characteristic is that this gap differs greatly among different labour groups (or classes). The latter is actually more important, because a mere “overall evaluation” or the gap between law and reality is not enough to learn about the real conditions in working world. In Korea, the principles of labour are applied at different levels for each class. In the case of large business regular workers, with the exception of rare cases where the worker has agreed on(overtime work etc.), most law principles are observed. Meanwhile, in the case of mid-size business regular workers, they have experienced a few cases where the acts are not complied with. In the case of irregular workers in mid-size businesses, however, the acts are rarely applied, and unofficially hired workers see no application of laws at all. In summary, depending on the group of class the worker pertains to, principles of labour law are applied anywhere between 0% and 100%. This paper aims to show that Korean society needs to urgently build or recover the labour and working conditions to normal state, in particular for irregular or unofficial workers. The term “normal” here refers to recovering what was left in the back burner during the fast economic development, or “establishing a principle that will be constantly and universally applied.” In other words, “normal” means that the law will be generally applied to most people, and that exceptions may occur sometimes (rarely) to some people. In the following parts I will explore how the law is faulty and how this leads to the serious condition where labour exceptions dominate, and I will explore what the “normal condition” regarding labour and relevant regulation is in Korean society.

키워드