Official launch of a green paper discussion group for a new social contract in the AI era

Discussing youth employment and social safety nets for three months... Wide public discussion planned

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Ok Seong-gu = The discussion body for the publication of the 'Green Book', which will contain key questions that our society needs to answer, such as how to utilize the achievements of artificial intelligence (AI) innovation, was officially launched on the 9th.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor held a launch ceremony for the 'Green Paper Discussion Group for a New Social Contract in the AI ​​Era' at the Koreana Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul this morning.

This discussion group was established to discover and organize key questions to find the direction in which our society should move in the future in response to structural changes throughout society, such as jobs, forms of labor, social safety net, and performance distribution, following the great transformation of AI.

The discussion group was chaired by Kang Seong-jin, professor of economics at Korea University (president of the Korean Economic Association), and participants included labor-management organizations, youth, non-regular workers, and unorganized worker groups, and experts in the fields of economics, management, politics, sociology, and labor law.

At a debate hosted by the Ministry of Labor last July, the labor community expressed conflicting positions, saying that social redistribution should be prioritized, while the management community should prioritize expansion of corporate investment.

In addition, over the next three months, the discussion body will broadly discuss changes in youth employment due to AI and technological change, new forms of labor and interest representation, social safety net and the role of government, industrial competitiveness and polarization, performance sharing, and new social dialogue models.

As a result of the discussion, we plan to systematically organize key questions and include them in a green paper, rather than hastily reaching a single answer or conclusion. A green paper is an official discussion paper in which the government presents social agendas and collects opinions before finalizing specific policies or bills.

The Ministry of Labor plans to continue broad social dialogue and public debate for a new social contract in the AI ​​era by including various questions raised at the discussion group in a green paper.

Minister of Labor Kim Young-hoon said, "The existing grammar of the industrialization era cannot fully capture the new era, and a 'new social contract' suitable for the AI ​​era is needed. We need to think about job issues and an appropriate social safety net in the AI ​​era."

He emphasized, "In the AI ​​era, no one has a complete answer yet," and added, "We will make sure that questions become dialogue, dialogue becomes agreement, and that agreement becomes a new system."