Korea Labor Institute records 363,000 days lost due to strikes from January to November last year

According to the latest report from the Korea Labor Institute, the number of work days lost due to strikes that occurred between January and November of last year reached 363,000, already exceeding the number of work days lost in the entire year of 2023.
On the 28th, Park Myeong-jun and Cho Gyu-jun, research fellows at the Korea Labor Institute, published an article titled "Assessment of Labor-Management Relations in 2024 and 2025" in the January issue of Labor Review.
According to the report, "Outlook for 2021," the number of lost work days from January to November last year was 363,000, already exceeding the 355,000 days expected in 2023.
There were 119 cases of work stoppages (when a union stops work for more than eight hours a day due to disagreements between the union and the employer), half the number from 223 the previous year.
The report said, "Despite the relative decline in the number of labor disputes, large companies with a large number of strikers
"The increase in strikes and strike durations in the National School Non-Regular Workers Union and the National Railway Workers Union in early December 2024 led to an increase in lost work days," the report said.
"If we include the above, the number of disputes and lost work days will increase further in 2024," he predicted. Looking at the labor-management dispute situation in 2024 by industry, the manufacturing industry is expected to have 57 disputes, the largest number overall.
The manufacturing sector also had the highest number of lost work days at 253,000, more than double the figure for 2023.
The increase in the number of lost work days in the manufacturing industry is largely due to the impact of strikes by the Samsung Electronics and GM labor unions that began in the summer of 2024.
Meanwhile, the number of disputes in the social and personal services industry fell from 107 in 2023 to 19 last year. The number of lost work days last year (16,000 days) also fell to one-tenth of the number in 2023, a decrease.
The trend was most pronounced in 2023, when health care unions conducted an industrial strike. For other industries, the overall trend is clear for a decrease or stagnation in the number of lost work days in 2024.
The report concluded that the government's efforts to improve illegal trade union practices, such as accounting transparency, have led to a decline in the number of labor disputes.
However, they argue that the establishment of the rule of law between labor and management is not the ultimate goal of labor-management relations, and that we should move toward labor-management autonomy and self-governance on the basis of the rule of law between labor and management.
The report lists the elimination or mitigation of the dual structure of the labor market as a key labor-management issue this year.
In particular, "efforts to improve the treatment of workers in small and medium-sized enterprises include expanding the application of the Labor Standards Act to business establishments with fewer than five employees and
"In a politically unstable situation, labor and management will express their demands on various issues and will discuss how to respond to the current situation through labor-management dialogue," he predicted.
"We need to think about how to do this," he said.