Social Dialogue and Union

Social Dialogue and Union

In Korea, social dialogue has been a key instrument of new governance for national-level labor relations since organized labor became an influential force from the late 1980s Over the last decade, social dialogue has played a substantial role in transforming our labor relations toward industrial democracy and strengthening labor unions' influence over the labor and socio-economic policy-making. With then involvement in various channels of social dialogue, labor unions have contributed in enhancing social equity and reforming the economic system. However, the future of Korean social dialogue is uncertain within many constraints, such as mistrust among social actors, the government's labor-exlusive attitude, employers' preference of market-oriented laissez-fairism, internal competition of organized labor Thus, the three actors - labor unions, employers, and the government - are required to make a paradigm shift of their ideological values over industrial relations in order to further advance social dialogue as a groundwork for industrial democracy