The ruling Democratic Party of Korea signaled it may ease the 52-hour workweek regulation for research and development (R&D) personnel within mega special zones, drawing a response from the business community that it was "a relief." The semiconductor industry has argued that unlike competing nations such as the United States, China, Japan, and Taiwan, which all devote themselves to R&D without being constrained by working hours, Korea is at a disadvantage in terms of work immersion. A senior business official stressed, "Taiwan's TSMC is famous for taking customer calls 24 hours a day and resolving complaints immediately," adding that "regulations need to be improved in a rational direction." Concerns that the effect may be halved if exceptions are allowed only for specific regions rather than for all high-income professionals, along with backlash from the labor sector, are expected to become challenges the party and government must resolve.
The ruling party, which had previously opposed exceptions to the 52-hour workweek, reversed its position because it judged that the benefits of lifting the regulation would be greater. The ruling party had ultimately deleted the regulatory exception clause for R&D personnel during the enactment of the Special Semiconductor Act. The Democratic Party takes the position that the 52-hour workweek exception could be applied not only to semiconductor clusters but also to other mega special zones.
The exception to the 52-hour workweek for R&D personnel is an issue that the business community has strongly demanded. In advanced industry fields such as semiconductors and secondary batteries, which are in global competition measured in seconds, the 52-hour regulation holds them back. In fact, when Taiwan's TSMC faced Samsung's pursuit in 2014, it launched the so-called "nighthawk project," conducting semiconductor R&D around the clock in three shifts. By carrying out not only semiconductor production but also R&D 24 hours a day, it shook off its competitor's pursuit.
Major advanced nations also actively operate systems that exempt high-income professional workers from working-hour regulations. The United States stipulates that workers earning more than $684 per week (about 1.03 million won) or $107,432 annually (about 162 million won) need not be subject to the 40-hour workweek regulation. Japan also amended its Labor Standards Act in 2018 to introduce the "highly professional" system, permitting overtime work for professional workers in fields such as financial product development, asset management, and R&D. In Korea, workers can work up to 64 hours per week through the special extended work system under the Labor Standards Act, but the sectors that can carry out special extended work for R&D reasons are limited to semiconductors and the three items previously subject to Japan's export restrictions, and there are also period limits, prompting many to point out that Korea is falling behind in the global artificial intelligence (AI) war.
Accordingly, while the industry welcomes the ruling party's decision, some raised concerns that even if the 52-hour workweek exception is applied within mega special zones, the effect could be halved if living conditions such as housing, education, medical, and cultural facilities are not properly established. This is because most of the R&D personnel of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are currently located above the "southern boundary line," in areas such as Giheung, Hwaseong, Icheon, and Bundang in Gyeonggi Province. This means that even if four memory chip fabs are built in the southwestern region and production workers move there in large numbers, R&D personnel may be reluctant to relocate.
A semiconductor industry official said, "If the regulatory exception is applied only to non-metropolitan areas such as the southwestern semiconductor cluster rather than to the entire industry, they will have to make talent want to move down there," adding that "young workers particularly prefer places where proper educational conditions for their children are in place."
Kwak No-jung, CEO of SK hynix, also made a request to the government at a national report session for the three major mega projects on the 29th of last month, saying, "Weekend couples may arise where the employee works in the provinces and the family remains in Seoul," and "If an environment is created where quality education can be received without going to the metropolitan area, it would greatly help early settlement."
Meanwhile, the ruling party plans to build a "bottom-up" system that actively reflects the demands of companies and local governments in legislation, including the 52-hour workweek exception. Park Kyung-mi, spokesperson for the special committee, met with reporters after a closed-door meeting and said, "Opinions converged that we should pursue this through a bottom-up approach rather than a top-down one, sufficiently reflecting the opinions of each region and area," adding that "various forums for discussion will be arranged to persuade the labor sector, which has strong resistance to exceptions to the 52-hour workweek system, and to form a social consensus." The government also decided to review the construction of liquefied natural gas (LNG) combined-cycle power plants within industrial complexes.
