President Lee "Special exception of 52 hours a week, prerequisite for payment of excess wages... I hope we reach a good agreement."

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Hwang Yoon-ki = President Lee Jae-myeong said on the 23rd that the exception to the 52-hour workweek, which the semiconductor industry is requesting to be included in the Ultra-Metropolitan Special Zone Act, should be discussed on the premise of 'payment of overtime pay' and said, "I hope we can reach a good agreement."

At the second plenary meeting of the Regulatory Rationalization Committee presided over at the Blue House this afternoon, President Lee said, “The main premise is that you should never enact a special law and devise a system that does not compensate for additional labor,” and added, “Extra wages must be paid.”

He then explained, “The last remaining issue seems to be the issue of the right to health,” adding, “Can a person survive if they conduct research for 20 hours a day for 5 days? Shouldn’t there be a certain limit to that as well?”

President Lee told Minister of Employment and Labor Kim Young-hoon, "It does not seem that there are differences serious enough to lead to extreme confrontation," and instructed, "Let's have an in-depth discussion to see if there is a way to do this, such as revising the existing enforcement ordinance or making procedures easier."

He added, “We need to trust each other,” and added, “There is a lot of lack of trust, so the Ministry of Labor should do its best.”

Minister Kim responded, “We will carefully look into what difficulties companies have in utilizing the existing system and build trust to ensure results.”

Recently, the National Assembly is discussing whether to include a clause that excludes high-income and research workers from applying to 52 hours a week while drafting the Ultra-Metropolitan Special Zone Act for local-led growth.

Park Geon-soo, full-time vice president of the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association, who attended the meeting on this day, also requested the insertion of a special provision, saying, “Special provisions on working hours for core research and development (R&D) personnel are a long-awaited project of the semiconductor industry.”

President Lee also responded to the industry's demand for the need to collect behavioral data of factory workers to develop physical artificial intelligence (AI) technology, saying, "Any policy has the potential to have side effects or be abused," and added, "I think an open discussion and coordination process will be needed to adjust interests."

At the same time, he said, "There are aspects in which areas that are in a leadership position do not play their role as well as the people's expectations," and asked the National Assembly, "There are a lot of things that need to be legislated for in rationalizing regulations. Although it may be difficult because there are many conflicting factors, please help us prioritize and process it quickly."