KCTU Walks Out of Minimum Wage Committee Meeting Over Chair Election

The Minimum Wage Committee held its first plenary meeting on the 21st at the Government Complex Sejong and elected Professor Kwon Soon-won of Sookmyung Women's University as its chairperson. The committee is composed of 27 members, with nine each from the labor, employer, and public interest sectors.

KCTU representatives raised objections to the process of electing the new chairperson and left the meeting. The KCTU cited past remarks by Chairperson Kwon Soon-won as the reason for their walkout during the meeting, which is expected to cause initial friction in the committee's operations and difficulties in minimum wage deliberations from the outset.

A request for deliberations on next year's minimum wage has been received, and basic data such as the living costs for single, non-married workers has been referred to the expert committee for review. The committee will deliberate on key issues such as whether to apply different minimum wages by industry and whether to extend minimum wage coverage to contract workers.

The Minimum Wage Committee will conduct expert committee reviews and hear opinions from the field during May, with the second plenary meeting scheduled for May 26th at the Government Complex Sejong.