The South Korean government has proposed to increase the legal limit of weekly working hours, from the current 52 hours to 69. According to reports from the Washington Post, the project of the People’s Power Party, the conservative majority led by President Yoon Suk-yeol, has unleashed the reaction of the opposition and the trade unions who fear the repercussions on people’s lives, in an already profoundly workaholic country.
The Democratic Party of Korea, which introduced the 52-hour work week in 2018, argues that the risk is that unemployment will increase because this new structure would allow employers to fire more easily, asking those who remain to increase their turns. South Koreans already work more than many of their overseas counterparts: on average 1,915 hours a year, compared to 1,791 hours for Americans or 1,490 for French people, who work a 35-hour week, according to data from the Organization for cooperation and economic development.