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The effectiveness of social protection laws/institutions In the age of 'precarious work' and the social-integrative job creation strategies

LEE HO GEUN 1

1전북대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This article is on the ‘precarious work' that is deepening in the age of economic crisis and it handles first the debate on the effectiveness of important social protection laws/institutions(nonstandard work act, national minimum wage act, labour standard act etc.). Today, with increasing separation of economic growth and employment, the important phenomena which are emerging in the labour market, are the enlargement of low wage works and the deepening of diversification of employment-types. The one is the result of limits to quantitative growth of employment and of competition pressure due to the open economy system such as globalization. The another is due to the various causes such as technical development, increasing competition pressure and personnel labour management of business, and voluntary choices in the trend of enlarging individualization. This article deals with problems of increasing precarious work such as low wage works and deepening diversification of employment-types in the labour market. While it is concentrating on the differences in the wage and working conditions between the direct and indirect work and the economically dependent work(or between the standard and nonstandard work), it reviews the reality of important social protection laws/institutions and its effectiveness that is in question. Especially, while in the age of economic crisis, this article is assessing the importance of job creation, it is critically reviewing the business friendly labour market policy as the background of controversial debate on the effectiveness of social protection laws/institutions. This article regards the protection levels of labour market in korea, compared with the countries of OECD or considering its economic size, as not so high(or not enough). In fact, this article sentences that compared with leading countries, the key issue in the korean labour market is not the problem of dichotomy between market-oriented flexibility and social-protective regulation, but of the ‘market-mismatching’ between the organized workers in the big business and public sector with higher wage and better working conditions and non-organized workers in the small and medium business that are mostly in the dead angle of legal protection. Considering this special situation in korean labour market, this article is now critically reviewing the problems of market-oriented and unregulated job creation strategy which is not considering the social security at the moment. As K Polanyi analyzed, this article concludes that the unregulated or self-regulated market only could not solve the problems of social protection as well as the employment problem itself. At the same time, it is important to recognize that to limit the precarious work through the legal regulation only could cause the unintended consequences such as the so-called ‘balloon effect'. The legal and institutional policy should be concentrated to prohibit the various illegal, unlawful and easier methods which are disturbing the contracting order in the market. At one side, one should try to achieve the social agreement on basic levels of protection and consequently to enforce the legal standard to correct the contracting practice between the employers and employees. At the other side, one should exert oneself to raise the productivity of enterprises through functional flexibility and to search for a solution to prohibit the polarization in the wage and working conditions in the labour market and to secure proper security. This is the so-called ‘flexicurity’ strategy and there could be no exception to this labour market policy, today. At the same time, this article is trying to show the social-integrative job strategy and the daring alternatives for the true ‘green economy initiative’ which could make the new dynamics for the growth and job creation, which the international organizations like the UNEP and ILO are starting to make global campaign and that should replace with the traditional civil engineering and construction industry such as the 4 big river projects.

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