Urgent press conference of 13 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)… “When the sun sets, we have to drastically reduce production.”
Small and medium-sized businesses urged the National Assembly to extend the 8-hour overtime work, saying that if the 8-hour overtime system ends on the 31st, in the worst case, they will face a business crisis.
The 8-hour additional overtime work system is a system that temporarily allows 8-hour overtime work only for workplaces with less than 30 employees in order to ease the burden of the 52-hour work week, which has been in effect since July of last year, for a certain period of time, ahead of sunset (end) on the 31st. there is.
On the 21st, 13 small and medium-sized business organizations, including the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, the Korea Machinery and Equipment Construction Association, and the Korea Women Entrepreneurs Association, held an emergency press conference at the Yeouido Small Business Federation and said, “It is difficult for companies with less than 30 employees to maintain the status quo due to the recent economic downturn.” In order to open up the way for workers and workers to live, the bill to extend the sunset of 8 hours of additional overtime work must pass through the National Assembly as soon as possible,” he stressed.
They said, “Companies with less than 30 employees who lack administrative power and financial power are highly dependent on the 8-hour overtime work system, so when sunset comes, they have to drastically reduce production, and in the worst case, they may face a crisis of business closure.”
“If overtime work is restricted, workers will also be forced to work longer hours than before to preserve their income,” he said. .
They feared, “Now, when the sunset comes in regarding 10 days and the year ends without any action, our small and medium-sized businesses and small business owners will have no choice but to close their businesses or become criminals.”
As a result of a fact-finding survey on the use of the 8-hour additional overtime work system in the manufacturing industry, which was conducted by the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises (KEC) for 400 manufacturers with 5 to 29 employees in October last year, more than 9 out of 10 companies that work over 52 hours a week are either applying the additional overtime system or have never applied it. answered yes.
75.5% of the respondents said that there was no appropriate countermeasure for the arrival of sunset.
Lee Myung-ro, head of the Smart Jobs Headquarters of the Korea Federation of Mid- and Medium-sized Enterprises, urged the passage of the sunset extension bill by the National Assembly within the year, saying, “The 8-hour additional overtime work system is an important public livelihood issue that depends on the livelihood of 632,000 companies with less than 30 employees and 6.03 million workers.”
/yunhap news