[120131] Mon-Tue-Wed-Thu-Fri-Fri-Fri?



Mon-Tue-Wed-Thu-Fri-Fri-Fri?
Chaebol companies ruining life-and-work balance of S. Korean workers

More than 1.43 million people, or about 13 percent of all South Korean laborers, were found to be working over 52 hours a week, the legal working time limit, according to a report by the daily Hankyoreh Jan. 30.
Working hours of OECD countries
In fact, the laws permit a maximum of 40 hours per week for regular work (5-day workweek system; 8 hours each from Monday to Friday) and an extended overtime work of up to 12 hours. So it means not a few people are working even over weekends, sacrificing their time for a more enjoyable life.
Raising concerns is the fact that such illicit overtime practices tend much more likely in workplaces of chaebol companies than those in mid- and small-sized ones. In particular, the rate of employees working over 52 hours goes beyond 50 percent in the automobile industry, dominated by one giant player - Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group.
Critics say that the country’s large business conglomerates, which have enjoyed enormous amounts of profit thanks to government policies in recent economic difficulties, are exerting little efforts to create more jobs and, instead, only indulged in extending the existing employees’ working hours.
Some people grumble – half injest, half in earnest – about the imbalance between life and work, saying they feel like living a week of “Wol-Hwa-Su-Mok-Geum-Geum-Geum (Mon-Tue-Wed-Thu-Fri-Fri-Fri).”
We do not need to refer to some OECD reports and data to prove this country is going against times. A sound life-and-work balance is beneficial not only to individual laborers but to businesses and the whole economy.

By pushahead
January 31, 2012

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