Author: Jooyeon Jeong
Publisher: Routledge Advances in Korean S
Published: 2007
Total Pages: 173
ISBN-13: 9780415363679
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A key factor in Korea's economic success is the nature of industrial relations in Korea business and industry. This book presents a comprehensive survey of industrial relations in Korea, focusing in particular on the development of industrial relations during the era of rapid economic development in the 1970s, the political and social democratization of the late 1980s and early 1990s and the period of sluggish economic growth after the mid-1990s. It demonstrates the 'enterprise unionism' is the distinctive feature of Korean industrial relations, with unions organized to represent employees' interests through bargaining at the level of individual enterprises. It shows how union membership has changed over recent decades, and how the focus of bargaining has widened from purely economic considerations to include a much wider range of issues, including, principally, issues related to job security. It also considers the role of government in shaping the legal and institutional environment, and of employers, who have taken a more aggressive role towards unions since the mid-1990s. Overall, this book is a thorough assessment of the current state of industrial relations in Korea and the key trends in their evolution over recent decades.
