earticle

영어

Current constitutional law and labor law have systems through which workers can participate in the decisions and applications of particular working conditions using various methods, qualified as individuals or groups, but in reality, it is difficult for individual workers to make direct or indirect participations. Current worker participation systems in individual labor relationships have no unified systems or regulations and this is also true for individual labor laws such as the Labor Standards Act. Individual clauses among current regulations do not define concepts and simply use the terminology or use the term of ‘labor representative’ as a different concept. On one hand, establishments with 30 or more full-time workers from each business mandatorily install ‘joint labor-management conferences’ according to current laws on the promotion of worker participation and cooperation and perform regular consultations between labor and management but it is unclear whether joint labor-management conferences have the authority to determine the working conditions of individual workers within establishments and whether decisions made by the joint labor-management conference are effective. Because of this, there are a lot of cases in which roles overlap within labor law. In particular, there are no problems with ‘labor unions organized by majorities within establishments’ but in establishments with no majority labor unions, confusion regarding working condition changes and decisions related to labor representatives are occurring frequently. Situations in which decisions must be made with regard to diverse employment and working forms, reorganizations of working hours, and wage plans are increasing in business circles within management environments that are rapidly changing with the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, globalization, and digitization. To support the rapid working condition changes and decisions of most businesses and non-union enterprises that possess minority unions, the following improvement plans are presented. Labor representatives (ⅰ) must first organize the intersecting and overlapping roles of current worker majorities, majority representatives, and joint labor-management conferences for the uniform and systematic management of worker representation systems and for this, joint labor-management conferences that possess many conditions as worker representation systems must be utilized. (ⅱ) Worker representation systems must clarify their objectives so they do not compete with labor unions within establishments. (ⅲ) Participation opportunities of worker representation systems must be fairly granted so that there are no classes that have their participation opportunities unfairly infringed upon. (ⅳ) Worker representation systems must reinforce opportunities for collecting feedback from employees and must elect a total number of committee members in proportion to establishment workers. (ⅴ) Labor representatives must be elected even in establishments with less than 30 people and systematic opportunities must be guaranteed for workers of small and medium sized businesses to participate in working condition decisions. (ⅵ) Detailed labor representative election qualifications and election methods must be specified. (ⅶ) Labor representatives must be given actual authority to decide working conditions.

한국어

현행 근로기준법, 산업안전보건법 등은 ‘근로자대표’를 선임해 사업장내 근로조건의 변경･결정 주체가 될 수 있도록 운용하고 있다. 또한, 현행 근참법은 상시근로자 30명 이상인 사업장에서 노사협의회를 의무적으로 설치하고, 근로자위원들이 회사를 상대로 근로자들의 복지증진, 근로조건 등 사항을 정기적으로 협의･의결하도록 운용하고 있다. 한편, 최근 4차 산업혁명의 도래로 기업에 다양성･자율성･신속성이 요구되고 있다. 이에 기업은 생존하기 위하여 인사제도･근무환경의 변화에 대한 적절하고 신속한 의사결정이 필요하다. 그런데, 현행 노동법제는 제기능을 수행하기에 미흡하다. 근로자대표는 개별적 노동법에서 통일된 규정이 없고, 용어도 상이한 개념으로 사용해 체계를 갖추고 있지 못하다. 또한, ‘노사협의회’는 사업장내 개별 근로자의 근로조건을 결정할 권한이 불분명해 ‘근로자대표’와 역할이 중복된다. 이에 본고는 실무 현장에서 근로자대표제가 제대로 운영될 수 있도록 근로자대표제의 개선방안을 검토하였다. 근로자대표제는 제도 도입에 따른 현장의 혼선을 최소화하기 위하여 현행 노사협의회를 활용해야 한다. 또한, 공정한 참여 기회의 부여, 의견수렴 기능의 강화, 선출자격･선출방법의 명문화, 근로조건의 결정권 명확화, 설치범위 확대 등과 같이 관련된 법규정의 미비 사항과 기존 문제점을 개선해야 한다. 결국 근로자대표제가 대내외의 민주성･대표성을 확보해, 공정한 경영참가제로써 기업내 노사 파트너쉽을 강화해야 한다.