노동법의 인적 적용범위 ― 법과 정책의 ‘콜라보’ ―

This article emphasizes that debates over the personal scope of labour law should not be confined to the question of whether institutional coverage ought to be expanded, but must be addressed as a task of balancing legal coherence with policy feasibility. Since the Labour Standards Act is, in principle, legally intended to apply to all employees, the Act should clearly affirm the principle of “applying to all workplaces.” At the same time, however, it argues that actual implementation requires differentiated approaches in light of the reasons why such extension may be difficult in practice, namely, the nature of rights, the mechanisms of enforcement, and the small scale of many workplaces. The article’s central proposal is that the law should declare full application irrespective of the number of employees working in the workplace, unless the purpose and mode of realization of the relevant right are structurally linked to the number of workers; while policy should, within the ‘channel’ provided by this legal judgment, devise the necessary institutions and support to make the principle effective. Furthermore, the article notes that workers not recognized as employees under the Labor Standards Act ― such as dependent contractors, platform workers, and other providers of labour services ― remain in a legislative blind spot. To address this, the recently proposed “Act on Working Persons” carries significant meaning as an attempt to broaden the reach of labour law by creating a new fundamental statute capable of encompassing diverse forms of work. In designing such legislation, it is crucial to make deliberate choices about the law’s basic purposes and character, and to determine its personal scope as a matter of legislative policy. Particular emphasis is placed on the need for a proportional framework in defining categories of persons: one that carefully considers each group’s vulnerabilities and characteristics ― such as legal subordination, economic dependence, and organizational features ― and guarantees rights that can alleviate or remedy those conditions.