개정 공무원노조법상 근무시간 면제제도의 법적 쟁점

Abstract

The Time-Off system is a system that allows union activities within the maximum time-off limit without loss of wages if it is stipulated in a collective agreement based on Article 24 of the Trade Union And Labor Relations Adjustment Act or with the consent of the employer. Unlike trade unions in the private sector, members of public officials’ trade unions are not allowed to exempt themselves from working hours, which has been criticized. As a result, the 2022 amendment to the Establishment and Operation, etc. of Public Officials Trade Unions(hereinafter “the Act”) introduced the Time-Off system recognized for workers in the private sector into the Act. However, while the 2022 revision of the Act introduces the Time-Off system that is expected to bring about major changes in civil service labor relations, the Act itself only stipulates the outline of the system. Therefore, when the revised act is implemented in the future, various legal interpretation issues such as the reasons for using the Time-Off and the procedure for using it would be expected to arise. Therefore, this article seeks to provide a reasonable interpretation of the various legal issues that may arise when implementing the Time-Off system for public officials, focusing on a comparison with the U.S. Official Time system. The principle of legal interpretation of the Time-Off system should be that, even if it is acknowledged that the labor rights of public officials may be subject to stronger restrictions than those of the workers in the private sector due to the multilateral nature and other special features of civil service labor relations, such restrictions should be limited to the minimum extent necessary. The basic purpose of introducing the Time-Off system through the amendment of the Act in 2022 is to ensure the legitimate unionization activities of public officials. Therefore, it is undesirable that the implementation of the Time-Off system will result in stronger restrictions on the time that has been recognized as paid official time before. Furthermore, while acknowledging the necessity of disclosing information on the use of Time-Off due to the multilateral nature of civil service labor relations, such disclosure should not have the effect of unduly curtailing the unionization activities of public officials’ trade unions. In addition, it is necessary to ensure the maximum participation of the parties to civil service labor relations in the composition of the Public Officials’ Time-Off System Deliberation Committee.