고령화 시대의 대안으로서 노인 노동 보호 관련 법제에 대한 평가와 개선 방향에 대한 소고

Abstract

This research attempts to suggest the general direction of legislation to protect aging laborers as an alternative to the aging population. In regards to the ongoing aging population, researchers anticipate that the sustainable development of Korean society may be crippled. In order to cope with challenges from the aging population, the government has established various policies to encourage more seniors to remain involved in economic activities. However, those systems that support old laborers typically have not been efficiently enforced because they are proposed without consistent and constitutionally justified principles. In this context, this paper attempts to suggest several principles for the protection of labour of seniors who are considered as socially weak groups in the current industrial society in the context of constitutional law. Moreover, the research argues that those principles should be incorporated in designing legislation intended to promote the labour of the aging population. In accordance with these principles, this paper claims that the government needs to pay more attention to maintaining job security, although Korea has thus far established policies to create jobs for the aging population. In the perspective of job security for seniors, one of the most important policies is extension of the retirement age. Of course, the Korean government recently passed new legislation to enforce extension of the retirement age to 60. However, this paper points out that the government needs to make more efforts in adjusting other policies in order to achieve the policy goals of retirement age extension. Essentially, this paper points out that the retirement age extension could not work efficiently without the restriction of companies to hire labourers arbitrarily before the retirement age. Also, a wage system should not be adjusted in a way to discriminate against senior labourers, although it is necessary to reduce increased labour costs after the new retirement age extension law is enforced. Last, the government needs to propose a more ambitious and longer plan to extend the retirement age to over 60 in order to reduce the time gap between retirement and pension recipients.