The most essential presidential campaign pledge for office workers was identified as the “full application of the Labor Standards Act.” (Image created by AI/ChatGPT)
SEOUL, April 14 (Korea Bizwire) — As South Korea enters an early presidential race, a recent survey has revealed that the top policy demand among labor experts is the full application of the Labor Standards Act to all workers, including those at small businesses and in freelance or non-standard roles.
In a poll conducted by labor advocacy group Workplace Gapjil 119 between March 19 and 31, 116 labor attorneys, legal professionals, and activists selected the ten most urgently needed labor-related campaign pledges for workers in the 2025 presidential election.
The most supported pledge—backed by 69% of respondents—was the universal enforcement of labor protections, regardless of workplace size or employment status.
Currently, workers at businesses with fewer than five employees, along with many freelancers and specially contracted workers, are excluded from key protections under the Labor Standards Act. This leaves them vulnerable to overwork, unjust dismissal, and the denial of overtime, holiday, or night-shift pay.
A previous survey conducted by the same organization in December 2024 found that 82.2% of 1,000 salaried workers also supported applying the Labor Standards Act to all types of employment, highlighting widespread public consensus on the issue.
Workplace Gapjil 119 cited numerous examples of unjust treatment. One employee at a business with fewer than five staff members said he was reassigned to menial tasks like bathroom cleaning and floor replacement after refusing to resign, eventually being moved from an office to a warehouse.
Another full-time worker at a private academy said she was wrongfully dismissed but denied any legal remedy due to her classification as a freelancer.
Despite the growing awareness, the organization noted that some recent policy discussions have shifted toward offering financial support or welfare assistance, rather than fixing the root legal exclusion. “Labor laws must evolve to provide stronger protections for those in precarious employment,” said Jinah Lee, a labor attorney with Workplace Gapjil 119.
“The survey results reaffirm the urgent need for structural reform to address legal blind spots in the workplace. These issues must be actively included in presidential campaign platforms and translated into concrete policy.”
Following the call for full labor law coverage, the next three most popular policy proposals in the survey were:
-
Reviving the “Yellow Envelope Act” (a proposed revision to Articles 2 and 3 of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act), backed by 50.9%;
-
Banning the use of non-regular workers in permanent roles (49.1%);
-
Implementing an ABC test to shift the burden of proof for worker classification to employers (38.8%).
“These proposals reflect a deeper demand to eliminate structural loopholes that allow exploitation through misclassification and insecure employment,” the group stated.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
