President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during a meeting with the heads of six business lobby groups at the presidential transition team's office in Seoul in this March 21 file photo. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-keun

By Park Jae-hyuk

Business lobby groups urged the Yoon Suk-yeol administration on Wednesday to accelerate efforts to step up deregulatory measures, although they positively assessed the president's market-oriented stance.

Their suggestions were made as the president held a press conference earlier on Wednesday to mark his first 100 days in office.

"By presiding over the strategic meetings for deregulations, I will carry out drastic reforms on regulations that have obstructed growth," Yoon said at the press conference.

The Korea Enterprises Federation (KEF), however, pointed out that the president has yet to fulfill his promise for labor market reforms, despite continued requests by businesses to revise the 52-hour workweek which is legally mandated by Korea's Labor Standards Act, as well as the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, which could send a company's CEO to jail if a fatal industrial accident occurs at the company's workplace.

"Because the president mentioned labor market reform as an important national task, businesses have had their hopes up," KEF Chairman Sohn Kyung-shik said in a meeting with Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Jung-sik. "We want the labor ministry to enable flexible work hours and a performance-based wage system without any setbacks."

The Federation of Middle Market Enterprises of Korea also said that the government has been slow to carry out overall reforms.

"The government should accelerate efforts, in order for the country to overcome the economic crisis and make a leap forward again," the federation said in a statement.

Regarding this issue, Yoon told reporters that labor market reforms are a long-term plan that should be pursued in collaboration with the National Assembly and the public, although he emphasized the need for labor to be supplied flexibly to suit what he referred to as the new industrial structure of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The president reiterated that the government will not tolerate illegal protests at workplaces, but said that the government should work together with the involved groups to analyze fundamentally the causes of labor-management disputes and come up with alternative solutions.

At the same time, he added that the public should think carefully about the polarization of the labor market, such as whether temporary or contract-based workers have been treated fairly in terms of wages and working conditions compared to permanent employees with job security in the same companies.

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) advised the administration to make more efforts to cooperate with the opposition party that controls the majority of the seats at the National Assembly.

"In order to ease major regulations, legislation at the National Assembly is necessary," KCCI research division head Kang Seok-gu said. "Although the government has expressed its intention to seek deregulation, it needs support from the opposition party to resolve difficulties facing businesses."

The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) was dissatisfied with the government's tax reform plan announced last month.

"Businesspeople seem to be less burdened with inheritance taxes, but it was regrettable that the reform plan did not include adjustments to inheritance tax rates and tax brackets," FKI economic research division head Choo Kwang-ho said.