2021년 개정 노동조합 및 노동관계조정법의 쟁점과 과제

Abstract

The revised Trade Union Act is in effect from July 6, 2021. The revision of the Trade Union Act was a pre-requisite for ratifying ILO Fundamental Conventions on Freedom of Association, and the revised Act is the product of correcting major issues that do not conform with Fundamental Conventions. Although there are some regrets in terms of its contents, the revised Act has a positive meaning in that it promotes the enhancement of basic labor rights by reorganizing domestic laws to better conform with international labor standards as a whole. The purpose of this article is to promote the early settlement of the revised act and the resolution of labor disputes in the future by examining issues and tasks in the interpretation and application of the revised act. In the field of the right to organize, the status of platform workers under the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act, the status of a union that targets the dismissed or the unemployed, restrictions on the qualifications of executives and representatives in company-level unions, the principle of union activity in the workplace of non-employee union members, and time-off system is being reviewed. As a result of the review, it is necessary to find a new concept of subordination, to abolish or re-amend regulations restricting the qualifications of union executives and representatives, to prepare interpretation standards for the workplace access and union activities of union members who are not employees, and to carefully apply rules prohibiting and penalizing the payment of wages for hours in excess of the maximum exempted from working hours. In the field of collective bargaining rights and right to strike, the review is focused on the decision of the representative labor union in bargaining based on employee union members, the employer's obligation to bargain in good faith and non-discrimination in autonomous bargaining, the extension of the upper limit of the validity period of the collective agreement, and the basic principles of industrial action related to occupation of the workplace. As a result of the review, it is required to strengthen the employer's burden of proof regarding substantive equality and sincere bargaining in autonomous bargaining, to resolve side effects caused by the extension of the upper limit of the validity period of collective agreements through the rational operation of the fair representation duty system, and to limit the effect of lockout because legitimate workplace occupation is permitted by the revised act. Finally, some interpretative tasks are presented, focusing on the union establishment report system, the justification of industrial action against corporate restructuring, and the crime of obstruction of business among issues related to the principle of freedom of association.