SEOUL, Aug. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced yesterday that it had designated 40 entities as “corporations with excellent labor-management culture.”
Among the companies honored are 15 large corporations, 13 SMEs and 12 public institutions.
Petrochemical giant SK Energy was lauded for two internal programs that helped better labor-management relations and achieve work-life balance for employees.
The first program, agreed upon by both labor and management, has employees donating a portion of their salaries to aid employees at subsidiaries and suppliers, with SK Energy matching employee contributions.
The second program called “Big Break” fosters a long two-week break for employees in order to firmly establish a sense of work-life balance in the company’s workers.
Meanwhile, Ilji Technology, a mid-sized firm, created a “committee of shared growth” in which eight of its partner companies have joined to create a win-win subcontract relationship for all parties involved.
Entities that are chosen as companies with “excellent labor-management cultures” are exempt from regulatory supervision for a period of three years and also receive a one-year exemption from tax probes.
Kim Min-seok, the policy head of labor-management relations at the Labor Ministry, said that the designation is a way to help expand a culture that benefits both labor and management.
“The government will continue to support corporations that have both labor and management working together,” said Kim.
H. S. Seo (hsseo@koreabizwire.com)