President Yoon orders accounting disclosure system for labor unions

President Yoon [Source : MK DB]

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called for an accounting disclosure system for labor unions to boost transparency and prevent corruption that would help to enhance industry competitiveness and workers’ welfare.

“The measure of establishing an accounting disclosure system for labor unions like Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer System (DART) operated by the Financial Supervisory Service, should be reviewed,” Yoon said Monday during a meeting with senior secretaries. “Preventing labor union corruption and strengthening transparency is essential to boosting industry competitiveness and improving worker welfare.”

Yoon was briefed about 2021 nationwide labor union groups compiled by the Ministry of Employment and Labor.

According to the ministry, the labor union membership rate at businesses with 300 or more employees reached 46.3 percent while those with less than 30 employees stood at 0.2 percent.

[Photo by Han Joo-hyung]

Yoon said during the meeting that “the country’s labor unions aren’t properly representing the weaker party” and that “we urgently need to break down the dual structure of the labor market and structure of exploitation between union.”

The Korean government, in the meantime, decided to carry out a voluntary review for financial transparency at labor unions with 1,000 or more members and 253 federations by January. It is the first time the government will review whether labor unions are abiding by labor law rules.

The government also plans to amend related law so that labor unions’ auditors are guaranteed independence and expertise.

It plans to have union groups that do not participate in the review or fail to provide documents to rectify their practices according to the law. The groups include 136 under the Federation of Korean Trade Unions and 65 under Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.

The number of union members reached 2.933 million last year, according to the labor ministry. The figure increased nearly 1 million during the five years under former President Moon Jae-in government.