Employment and Labor Minister Lee Ki-kweon said Sunday he will push to resubmit bills aimed to reform the labor sector once the next National Assembly opens.

“It is incredibly heartbreaking that the labor reform bills failed to pass the 19th Assembly. It is lamentable to be unable to give the youths hopes for their employment,” Lee said during a meeting with the press. The outgoing Assembly held its last plenary session last week during which they shelved all the remaining bills of contention.

“The government feels grave responsibility and the labor unions and the political parties should feel the same.”

Lee said he will arrange a meeting of the ruling Saenuri Party and the government to fast track the next steps as soon as the next Assembly formally opens on May 30.

Youth unemployment has reached 1.21 million as of March this year, according to the ministry.

The government has been pushing to introduce several measures including the wage peak system, which gradually decreases the salaries of employees past retirement age to make the employment market more flexible. The government and the ruling Saenuri Party have motioned five relevant revision bills -- the labor standards act, the industrial accident compensation insurance act, the employment insurance act, the dispatched work act and the short-term worker protection act.

The bills have remained untouched as the tripartite committee of the government, the businesses and the labor union was suspended last year. The deal fell through when the union objected to the government’s unilateral release of draft administration guideline that they contended breached the due process of negotiation.

The union and the opposition parties have also objected to most of the five bills that they contend are favorable towards the businesses and would increase contract-based workers with minimized protection. The tripartite committee meeting on labor reform has since been held without the attendance of the labor’s representative.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)