earticle

영어

This article is about labor law’s discipline which refers to the emotional labor. The emotional labor means a type of labor which an employee is required to repress his/her own feelings while offering labor. The problem of the emotional labor often turns up at companies of service industry which business is mainly dealing with customers. Mental health of worker could be deteriorated if a worker is exposed to the situations which urge worker to control one’s feelings or leads to emotional disharmony. Recently, the industrial structure is changing into service industry. Therefore emotional labor issue has become a serious social problem. The purpose of labor law is to secure right to a Life worthy of human beings and protect worker’s healthy life by the means of which assuring of minimum working conditions and improving the working environment. The Labor Standards Act defines minimum work conditions. And Industrial Safety and Health Act defines the necessary measures for the safety of worker. Also the employer is obliged to secure worker’s health because of the labor contract’s obligations. But under the system of existing law, there are some limits to regulate the emotional labor problem. This article shows a direction and discipline of labor law for the emotional labor. Labor is consisted of physical, mental and emotional aspects, and those are combined each other. In order to protect workers from the risk element of emotional labor, there must be adjustment of working hours and improvement of working conditions basically. In addition, scope of application of labor laws should be extended to the emotional labor. First, it is needed to establish the term ‘emotional labor' in the Labor Standards Act. Industrial Safety and Health Act must be materialized. Employer’s obligation which preventing worker’s emotional labor issues and recovering mental health is the target. Finally, A revision in the Industrial Safety and Health Act is needed to recognize the potential damage caused by emotional labor as an industrial accident.