This file photo taken Aug. 20, 2020, shows striking construction workers holding a rally in the southeastern city of Pohang. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of working days lost due to labor disputes surged by nearly 40 percent in South Korea last year, a report said Saturday, indicating a likely deterioration in labor-management relations at local firms.
According to the report by the state-funded Korea Labor Institute, the number of lost work days totaled 554,000 days in 2020, soaring 37.8 percent from the previous year’s 402,000 days.
The figure had steadily fallen from 862,000 days in 2017, when the Moon Jae-in government took office, to 552,000 days in 2018 before marking the on-year surge between 2019 and 2020.
The report attributed last year’s surge to the base effect, as the 2019 figure was the lowest since 2000. Indeed, the number of strikes decreased 25.5 percent to 105 last year.
The number of lost work days is an index that tracks workplaces that have stopped working for more than eight hours a day due to a strike.
It increases in proportion to the number of strike participants and the length of the strikes.
(Yonhap)
