바람직한 노동재판청구권 실현의 모습-노동법원 설립 논의를 중심으로

Abstract

In order for people to realize the right to a trial as a procedural fundamental right, a procedural law that fits the nature of the relevant substantive law as a trial norm needs to be prepared. This should be likewise applicable to labor trials governed by labor law. Labor law has historically been created and developed by modifying civil law principles to protect workers. In particular, Korea has clearly declared and guaranteed the basic principles and rights of labor law, such as the minimum wage system, the right to work, legalism of working conditions, and the guarantee of the three labor rights, through the Constitution, which is the highest norm of the country. However, in reality, labor disputes are characterized by an imbalance of power between the parties, daily and ongoing disputes, and strong influence on other people. Therefore, in resolving labor disputes, the principles of speed, substantive fairness, economical efficiency, and autonomy should be pursued. Currently, courts do not have separate proceedings that take into account the specificities of labor law and labor disputes. Therefore, a procedural law that fits the characteristics of labor law as a substantive law needs to be prepared, and the Labor Court that specialize in trials needs to be established under the procedural law. The Labor Courts have been already established in many countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, and France. In Korea, there have been calls for the introduction of the Labor Court for more than 50 years, from around 1971 to the present. In addition, since around 2010, lawmakers have successively submitted bills to establish specialized labor courts to the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st National Assemblies. These bills stipulate procedural specialties such as special rules for the preparation of a written judgment of the first instance in the labor courts (related to the principle of speedy trial), a discovery system (related to the principle of substantive fairness), improved access to courts (related to the principle of economical efficiency), and Via-Mediation mechanism (related to the principle of autonomy). In addition, the above bills provide for a lay judge or quasi-lay judge system, in which lay judges representing workers and employers sit together with an occupational judge. The Labor Court system is not only supported by judges and court officials, but also by the general public. Recently, the President has also publicly stated the need to establish the Labor Court and instructed the relevant ministries to prepare a legislative bill. We hope that the 22nd National Assembly will not only submit better bills based on the existing bills, but will also enact them.