콘텐츠 산업 근로시간 규제 및 단체협약에 관한 주요국 사례검토 — 영국, 미국, 캐나다, 프랑스, 독일 —

The Korean content industry has long been exempt from working time regulations due to the creative nature of the profession. However, in promulgating an amendment to the country’s 1997 Labor Standard Act, the exemption of the working time regulations for this industry was revoked in 2018. Even though the amendment slashes the maximum weekly work hours to 52 from 68 hours—in order to improve work-life balance among its workers and enhance labor productivity—many conflicts and much confusion still exist, because more realistic and concrete institutional measures are not yet supported. In this regard, this research aims to examine how major North American and European countries including the U.K, U.S, Canada, France and Germany implement their working time regulations for the content industry by focusing on the collective agreements between their major content industry unions and employers. In order to systematically examine each country’s collective agreements between its major unions and employers, this study analyzes the issue through six different comparative analysis frames: 1) whether the content industry is classified as an exemption from the working time regulations; 2) how the work time is defined; 3) whether there is an agreement on the maximum daily working hours; 4) whether there is an agreement on the maximum weekly working hours, 5) how the issue of criminal punishment and treatment in the case of violation of the given agreement is treated; and 6) who represents the main parties of the agreement. Based on this comparative analysis, the study then scrutinizes the collective agreements of Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematography and Theatre Union (BECTU) in the U.K, Directors Guilds in America (DGA) in the U.S, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) and Canadian Media Guilds (CMG) in Canada, Les Monteurs Associés in France, and TV FFS and NV Bühne in Germany. Regardless of differences among the sampled countries, this research reveals three main trends and major characteristics commonly found in terms of 1) insurance of workers' rights, 2) enhancement of regulative flexibility reflecting the specificity of the content industry, and 3) securing of the autonomy and effectiveness of collective agreements. Based on these findings, the research suggests four policy implications for working time regulations for the Korean content industry. Firstly, it is necessary to more clearly establish the definition and the criteria of working time to ensure workers’ rights. Secondly, a more flexible regulative system should be applied by considering the specificity of each field of the content industry. Thirdly, it is practically difficult to create detailed guidelines of working time regulations covering all the sub-fields of the content industry, so the government needs to consider how to encourage and secure more collective bargaining and agreements within the content industry. Finally, it is necessary to strengthen the effectiveness and regulatory power of the working time regulation