‘고령근로기본법’의 제정에 관한 입법론적 고찰

The elderly population in South Korea is rapidly increasing and it has become one of the biggest social problems. South Korean government has enacted legislation expediting employment of the elderly and implemented policies to solve the social issue since the early 1990s. As a result, discrimination in employment by age is prohibited by “Act on Prohibition of Age Discrimination in Employment and Elderly Employment Promotion” in South Korea. According to the act employers must implement a mandatory 60-year-old retirement rule and provide a variety of support schemes for promoting the employment. However, the aging issue is hardly be solved only with mandatory retirement rules or promotion for elderly employment, because South Korea is aging faster than any other country and the poverty rate of the elderly in South Korea is comparatively high. This paper suggests South Korean government enact the labor basic law for the elderly as a basic law considering that the elderly have already participated in the labor market and they are under poor working conditions. Also, this paper tries to introduce a basic theory when it comes to the protection and promotion of elderly employment by studying constitutional basis, fundamental principles, and major issues of “Framework Act on Elderly Labor Relation”.