87년 헌법 이후 역대 정부의 노동정책과 제도의 조망과 평가

The Korean society is rapidly flowing through the candlelight revolution in 30 years, the impeachment of the President, the early presidential election, and the change of government since the end of 2016. This paper aims at taking view of the current constitution and the labor policies and systems of the previous governments, which have been the outcome of the democratic uprising in 1987, at the moment of a new historical turning point, and examining the tasks given to the government of Moon Jae-in. To this end, I reviewed the process of forming the basic legal framework of Korean labor relations before the Constitution in 1987. This is to understand the lessons and limitations in labor policy of the previous governments since the 1987 Constitution and to understand the present status of labor law and institution in Korea. In order to achieve labor-respecting society, which is the mission of Moon Jae-in government, it is most important to make the workers, whose identity has emerged in the workers’ great struggle in 1987, the subject and power source of labor reform. The reason why the labor reforms of all governments since 1987 have failed is that the workers were absent from the subject of the reform. The state and capital were always the subject, and the workers were merely objects of cooperation or management. Therefore, the role and function of the ‘korean social dialogue organization’, which is the action strategy of the government of Moon Jae-in, should not be a political bargain as in the past, but a substantial strengthening of the power of labor. We must be careful not to repeat the mistakes of existing governments and provide the basis for workers and trade unions to develop their social strength. To this end, the work of removing the legal, institutional and ideological constraints that have curbed the power of labor for decades should be a priority task. As long as the flexibility of the labor market, which was regarded as a religious belief in the labor policies of the previous governments, remains a dominant ideology, the advent of labor-respecting society will become even more distant. In order for workers to have hope for the future, prospects should be given that they can achieve a stable and good quality job through their organized force so that they can be respected as a human being, not merely treated as a tool of profit accumulation. Labor-respecting society is only possible if the order of the labor market is governed by the right legal norms to enable mutual cooperation, not just competition. As stipulated in the Constitution, the standard of working conditions should be set in a law to ensure human dignity, and all workers should be guaranteed independence to exercise the right to organize, collective bargaining and collective action in order to improve the working conditions.