기업경영과 노동법제 개선방안

Abstract

Present-day labor law, as a special law designed to protect employees' welfare, has a relatively short history. It came into existence only as a result of the modern industrial development and with it the rise of the status of employee(wage earner). The goals and objectives of labor legal studies have been the full realization of the workers economic and social rights, for which the specialty of labor law has been also stressed. The right to organization, particularly in Korea, has had dogmatic overtones, it seems to be dedicated to achieving enhanced legitimacy of labor union itself, rather than focusing on rectifying and supplementing contract theories based upon the simplistic version of market economy. The legal acknowledgement of labor union needs to be made through the coordination and rectification of the individual-oriented principle of "freedom of contract". I point out that it neglects to establish labor law as a mechanism, where labor and management can be interlinked to each other, by overstressed labor rights and the unfettered function of labor union, and disregarding the concerns of labor productivity and those of business competitiveness. Understanded the inseparable link between the enhancement of labor productivity and the improvement of working conditions, it is of great significance that every effort should be made to set up a paradigm of labor relations and labor law that can best accommodate the contemporary needs to have both labor and management work in collaboration with each other, as well as to eliminate repressive tones of unconstitutional labor law clauses. Although it may be difficult to meet these two, somewhat conflicting, policy perspectives, one would not be justified in achieving one end of policy concerns at the expense of another. I attempt to relate problems of enhancement of labor productivity to the cause of protecting the rights of individual workers, not as confliction, but as cooperation and integration.