The Democratic Party's Euljiro Committee has launched legislation to limit delivery workers' night hours by law and to require delivery operators to bear social insurance costs. With overwork among delivery workers coming back into focus amid the expansion of seven-day-a-week deliveries and late-night deliveries, the aim is to resolve through legal amendment the issues that could not be agreed upon in social dialogue.
The Democratic Party's Euljiro Committee said on the 31st that it had proposed an amendment to the "Living Logistics Service Industry Development Act" containing measures to improve delivery workers' working conditions. The amendment centers on △limiting the working-hour cap for night delivery workers and △clarifying who bears the cost of delivery workers' industrial accident and employment insurance.
The current law regulates the overall management system of the delivery service industry, but it does not have separate provisions on specific working-hour standards for night delivery labor or on who bears social insurance premiums. The Democratic Party plans to establish a legal basis for managing appropriate working hours through this amendment, with detailed standards to be set in subordinate legislation such as enforcement decrees.
The amendment also includes measures allowing for specific standards to be set, such as limits on consecutive nights of work. The judgment is that as logistics service competition has expanded recently through dawn delivery and same-day delivery, night labor has increased, so institutional mechanisms are needed to prevent long working hours.
It also established a basis requiring large delivery operators and night delivery operators that provide delivery services from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. the following day to bear the cost of delivery workers' industrial accident insurance and employment insurance. This aims to improve the structure under which delivery workers, who are in a special employment status, have borne part of their social insurance costs.
This legislation is a follow-up measure prompted by the failure to reach agreement on core issues in the delivery social dialogue, despite some progress. The third social dialogue body for delivery workers, led by the Euljiro Committee, was launched last year and held eight meetings, reaching common ground on introducing a five-day workweek for night delivery workers, banning delivery pressure during bad weather, and mandating health checkups.
However, as differences between the delivery industry and labor circles continued over the management of night working hours and the burden of social insurance costs, they failed to reach a final agreement. At the eighth plenary meeting held in April, they decided on a direction to resolve those issues through legislation.
Representative Yeom Tae-young, who led the proposal of the amendment, said, "Building a safety net in the field amid a newly changing labor environment is the natural duty of the National Assembly and the state." He added, "Based on the legal amendment on the unresolved issues, we will finalize the social agreement and reflect it in the standard contract."
Min Byoung-dug, chairman of the Euljiro Committee, also said, "In a logistics environment where seven-day and late-night deliveries are expanding, securing the health rights and safety net of delivery workers is a task that cannot be delayed." He said, "We will create a sustainable delivery system by pursuing social dialogue and legislative discussions in parallel."
However, the delivery industry may be concerned about the impact that night delivery restrictions and expanded cost burdens will have on service operations and consumer convenience. The Democratic Party plans to hold a forum at the end of August to continue follow-up discussions and to work out detailed plans through the resumption of the third social dialogue body.
