President Park Geun-hye’s plans to raise the country’s employment rate by increasing part-time jobs face mixed reactions from businesses, labor organizations and political parties.

The hard-line Korea Confederation of Trade Unions criticized that the president should focus on improving labor conditions instead of looking to obtain her employment rate goal with “bad jobs.”

The umbrella union group also honed in on the president’s comments regarding the need to change public opinion regarding temporary jobs saying “President Park is the one who needs to realize (her) ignorance and form a proper opinion.”

At Monday’s meeting of the presidential staff, Park said that in order to erase the bias against part-time jobs a new term should be developed.

At present, Korea has one of the least developed part-time employment systems among members of the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation.

In 2011, Korea ranked 22nd among OECD nations in terms of part-time to full-time job ratio. In terms of average working hours per week, Korea came in second with 44.6 hours after Turkey with 48.9 hours.

As for the business community, it has yet to take an official position on the issue, it has opposed similar plans in the past citing rising labor costs.

Political parties are also sharply divided. The ruling Saenuri Party appears ready to come to the president’s aid with floor leader Rep. Choi Kyung-hwan saying that the party will give its support if legislation is necessary.

But some opposition lawmakers have gone as far as to say that the idea was “pathetic” and “puzzling” as expanding part-time employment would increase the number of workers on irregular contracts.

The Democratic Party’s former presidential candidate Rep. Moon Jae-in, who has remained mostly out of the spotlight since last year’s presidential election, spoke out against the idea.

“Suggesting increasing part-time jobs to achieve 70 percent employment rate is far removed from reality,” Moon wrote on his Twitter account.

“In the West, many are voluntarily employed on part-time basis and are often paid more than full-time workers, but we (Korea) are the opposite.”

Democratic Party chairman Rep. Kim Han-gil has taken a softer, less negative approach to the issue.

“I think that the time to consider a Korean version of the Wassenaar Agreement has come,” Kim said at the party’s supreme council meeting on Wednesday. He added that for part-time employment to be increased, the principle of “the same pay for the same job” must be applied.

The Wassenaar Agreement is an accord drawn up by businesses and labor organizations in 1982 in the Netherlands to reduce working hours and increase part-time jobs in order to improve working conditions and to stem wage increases.

Despite the controversy, the government has seen some positive developments for its plans.

On Thursday, the moderate umbrella union Federation of Korean Trade Unions, Korea Employers Federation and the Ministry of Employment and Labor signed an agreement to introduce peak wage system and to reduce working hours.

Under the agreement, concerned organizations will cooperate in resolving labor issues including those regarding irregular workers.

The government hopes to use the agreement to create 2.38 million jobs by 2017, and to increase the employment rate for those aged between 15 and 64 to 70 percent.

The government will also reveal its roadmap for achieving the target on June 4.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)