고용갈등과 공정노동정책

Abstract

Korea labor markets have been faced with both demand shocks and supply shocks in the last 20 years. The former has been from technology innovation and globalization and the latter from militant labor movement. These changes have caused employment conflict due to shrinking job as well as increasing nonregular workers with less wage but more unstable job security. Even though they have been not from cyclical changes but from structural ones, the government has just suggested temporary prescriptions soothing the discontent of unemployed and low waged workers. The Korean labor markets have been segmented with the large enterprises sector and the small and medium one as well as the regular workers sector and the nonregular one making human resources less utilized. In addition, rapid low fertility and aging have made prime age workers decrease making it urgent to settle employment conflict due to structural changes in labor markets. This paper diagnoses the problems of the Korean labor markets and labor management relations and investigates the necessity of new rules to settle employment conflict. It suggests fair labor policies which purse fair competition in labor markets, fair protection of workers by the laws and fair assistance to workers by the government.