Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions hold signs protesting the Yoon Suk Yeol government’s labor policy during a press conference on Feb. 20, 2023. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 15 (Korea Bizwire) — The government announced Thursday it has revised regulations to make union dues paid to organizations defying accounting disclosure ineligible for tax deductions.
It marks the latest in a series of government policies to reform the labor sector and is expected to run into vehement resistance from labor unions already at loggerheads with the government over crackdowns on labor rallies.
Under the revised enforcement decrees of the trade union act and the income tax act, the dues paid to unions refusing to disclose its accounting will not be eligible for up to 30 percent of tax deductions.
Under the current labor union law, heads of labor unions with 1,000 union members or more are required to make account settlements public every fiscal year.
Currently, however, members of such labor unions are given tax deduction benefits of up to 30 percent on dues they pay to the unions, regardless of whether the accounting disclosure requirements are met or not.
Both of the country’s two biggest umbrella labor unions immediately denounced the government’s action.
“The purpose of the revision is to threaten and disgrace labor unions,” the Federation of Korean Trade Unions said.
“It’s apparent that the government is seeking to frame incompliant unions as groups with shady accounting issues and use them as a pretext for backward labor reform,” it said.
(Yonhap)
