South Korea U-turns on 69-hour working week after youth backlash

The Guardian ^ | 15 March, 2023 | Justin McCurry

[anthropocene_x]

South Korea’s government has been forced to rethink a planned rise in working hours after a backlash from younger people who said the move would destroy their work-life balance and put their health at risk.

The government had intended to raise the maximum weekly working time to 69 hours after business groups complained.But protests from the country’s millennials and generation z prompted the president, Yoon Suk-yeol, to order government agencies to reconsider the measure.

The plan has also been criticised as out of step with other major economies, including Britain, where dozens of companies last year trialled a four-day week that campaigners said resulted in similar or better productivity and increased staff wellbeing.

South Koreans worked an average of 1,915 hours in 2021 – that’s 199 hours more than the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development average, according to the most recent OECD employment outlook, and 566 hours more than workers in Germany.

Opposition politicians have argued that forcing employees in Asia’s fourth-biggest economy to work longer hours will do nothing to address the country’s record low birthrate.

“It will make it legal to work from 9am to midnight for five days in a row. There is no regard for workers’ health or rest,” the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions said in a statement.

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15 minute breaks and 30 minute lunch?

[Gay State Conservative]

In Seoul it's not unusual to see a man on the subway at 6AM and see him at 8PM going in the opposite direction. IOW...a lot like what you see on the Tokyo subway.

[Sicvee]

I may be reinforcing stereotypes, but I am sure many Korean minimart owners in the US are working 80 hour weeks. Yes they are driving Mercedes and BMWs, but I do not envy them.

[Gay State Conservative]

There's a good amount of truth to that. My girlfriend is Korean-American and lived in the ROK until she was in her 40s. Her early years here were tough for many reasons,including limited English. She averaged 80 hour work weeks during those days and even today,when her situation is far more settled she averages 50-55 hours a week.

Neither Koreans nor Japanese are afraid of hard work or long hours.

[shotgun]

Whats a vacation?

[HamiltonJay]

Yes, not wanting. To spend 14 hours a day working, damn youngsters..

[Paul R.]

The latter will be automated.

The former may be automated too...

What 20 y/o wants to face a future with a 69 hour work week?

[Paul R.]

Yes, I suspect many of us have worked crazy hours when we were young. I recall one stint where I worked almost 60 hours straight (no sleep), got a couple hours sleep, and then worked another 20 or so. 60 hours a week was not uncommon for me at all. Once I got past 40 and got married though...

[Tell It Right]

I worked full time (35-50 hours/week) for many years in a high volume grocery warehouse with no A/C in hot Alabama while slowly going to college (2 to 3 courses per quarter) and getting a BS in computer science. Looking back in hindsight, the years of physical work in young and influential years build character. In my 50’s now it was do-able to handle the year 2020’s many, many software changes, working 50-60 hours/week for a few months. But I couldn’t do it every year.