노동법의 선진적 개정 방향 (The Advanced Proposal of Amendment of the Labor Law)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 국민대학교 법학연구소
· 수록지 정보 : 법학논총 / 23권 / 1호 / 227 ~ 269페이지
· 저자명 : 이광택

초록

2010년 1월 1일 새벽 국회의장에 의해 직권 상정되고 한나라당이 중심이 되어 통과시킨 ‘노동조합및노동관계조정법(노조법) 일부개정안’의 골자는 노조전임자 급여 지급 금지와 복수노조 체제하의 단체교섭 등의 두방향으로 그 시행에 따른 파급력은 매우 크다.
이번 노동법 개정으로 지난 13년간 유예되었던 노조전임자 임금 수령․지급 금지 규정은 6개월 후인 2010년 7월 1일부터 곧바로 전면 시행되는 것으로 하였고, 기업별 복수노조 허용은 그 유예기간이 다시 1년 6개월간 연장되어 2011년 7월 1일부터 시행되도록 하였으나 법개정이 국제노동기준과 노동기본권을 외면한 개악이라는 비판이 제기되었고 관련법이 재개정되어야 한다는 주장도 바로 나왔다.
개정 노조법은 기본적으로 노조활동의 기본이 되는 전임자 활동, 단체교섭 등에 있어서 결정적 권한을 사용자측에 부여하였다는 비판을 받고있다. 개정 노조법 중 노조 전임자 급여 지급 금지에 갈음하여 등장한 근로시간면제 제도의 운영과 관련하여 노조의 조직력과 대응에 따라 다양한 편차가 발생될 것으로 전망된다. 복수노조 부분도 노조 활동에 결정적제약이 될 수 있다.
개정법은 종전의 노조 전임자 급여 지급은 금지하되 time-off 제도를통해 일정 범위 활동에 대한 유급처리를 가능하도록 하였다. 이를 위반하는 급여지급을 요구하고 이를 관철할 목적으로 쟁의행위를 하여서는 아니 되도록 하였다.
또한 개정법에 의하면 사업장 단위의 복수노조를 허용하되, 사용자가동의하는 경우에만 복수노조 각각 개별교섭 가능하며, 사용자의 동의가없을 때에는 교섭창구를 단일화해야 한다. 다만 현격한 근로조건의 차이,고용형태, 교섭관행 등을 고려한 교섭단위 분리가 가능하다.
교섭창구 단일화하여 결정된 교섭대표노조(공동교섭대표단 포함)가 모든 교섭권한을 가진다. 교섭창구 단일화 절차에 따른 교섭대표노조 결정이광택 _ 노동법의 선진적 개정 방향 265은 노조 자율적 단일화, 과반수 노조, 공동교섭대표단 순으로 이루어진다.
공정대표의무제를 도입하여 타 노조에 대한 불합리한 차별을 금지하였다.
헌법 제33조 1항 근로자는 단결권, 단체교섭권, 단체행동권을 가진다고규정하여 노동3권을 보장하고 있는데, 개정 노동법 시행령은 교섭 방식,교섭 시기 등을 사용자가 규정하도록 할 뿐 아니라, 노조법이 노사 자율에 의한 노사관계를 위해 최소한의 부분만을 입법하고 있는 것과 달리구체적으로 노동위원회를 포함한 정부 개입을 최대화하여 노동3권을 형해화할 우려가 매우 크므로 법률상 기본권 침해 최소화의 원칙에 위배되며, 입법 위임 재량권 한계를 일탈했다고 할 것이다.
따라서 개정법은 ILO가 권고한 바대로 노사 자율의 원칙에 따라 재개정되어야 할 것이다.

영어초록

A revised bill to the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act(TULRAA) passed through the National Assembly on the first day of 2010.
Legislated back in 1997, the controversial law calls for preventing employers from paying wages to employees working full-time for labor unions and allowing union pluralism at company level. The implementation of the law has been delayed for the past 13 years.
According to the revision, after a grace period for preparation, the corporate payment for full-time union officials will be banned from July 2010 and the multiple unions at enterprise level will be allowed in July 2011.
With the wage payment of full-time union officials banned, a paid time-off system is to be introduced. Under the system, employers are allowed to pay full-time union officials when their labor activities are considered "relevant to the improvement of labor-management relationship.
Under the time-off system, the scope of work hour exemption of full-time union officials is confined to only labor-management joint activities (bargaining, negotiation, grievance handling, occupational safety, etc.) and activities for maintaining and operating unions. The phrase proposed by the ruling Grand National Party, ‘ordinary union operating activities set by the Presidential decree’ was deleted in the agreement and instead, it was expressed as ‘maintaining and operating activities for the development of sound labor-management relations’,stressing the ‘soundness of union’s activities’ for increasing membership and education.
The revision bill in particular has articles that requests exceeding the time-off system cannot be used as a reason for strike by unions and also stipulates that ‘time-off system review committee’ should be established under the Ministry of Labor, composed of 15 members, five from each labor, employers and public interest groups, will decide on the upper limitation of the time-off system. The review committee is convened every three years and when labor and management fail to reach an agreement on the upper limit at the first place, then public interest members will decide on it.
Even though union pluralism is allowed, the law stipulates that only exclusive single bargaining channel is allowed at workplace level in principle. Labor unions can decide upon who will be their representatives on their own. However, if they cannot decide, the union successfully garnering a majority of the total union members will be given the representative power. If there is no such a union,other minor unions will come together to make up a joint bargaining team. In addition, labor unions can resort to a labor dispute when more than a majority of members of labor unions which participated in the process of making up the single bargaining channel approves the dispute.
The law made it a principle to have a single bargaining channel,however all unions can have bargaining power when employers agree.
They also can have a separate industrial bargaining on the condition that employers agree. Also, in the case of industrial unions that have bargaining power as of the end of this year, bargaining channel unification will be implemented in July 2012, one year later than the implementation of allowing union pluralism.
In addition, given that controversy may occur on the effectiveness of the existing collective bargaining agreement, a supplementary provision stipulates that the existing CBAs will be effective up to two years from June next year. When organization target groups and working conditions are very different like non-regular workers, the labor relations commission will decide on the matter of separating their bargaining units.
Almost three months are expected to take before unions and their employer start the negotiation after unions’ request for the employer to have a collective bargaining and unifying negotiating channels.
A Presidential decree of the TULRAA was promulgated on February 12, 2010. Accordingly, the Ministry of Labor plans to compose the time-off system review committee and specify the limit on work-hour exemption by the end-July. Debates among tripartite partners are to bubble up in the coming months.
According to the enforcement decree, the government strengthened power of the time-off system review committee by stipulating, “the time-off system review committee can decide time and number of union officials who can use time-off system, taking into account the number of the total union members of a company or workplace, the range of their task, etc.” So far, the labor circle has demanded that the limit on the number of union officials be removed and the management side has insisted on the necessity of the limit.
The time-off system review committee shall review and decide the range of work-hour exemption within 60 days after the receipt of a demand for review from the Labor Minister. Their members will be recommended by the national-level labor organizations and business associations and the Labor Minister will appoint them. Public interest group members will be appointed by the government. When the committee cannot decide on the range of limit, public interest members would decide on the limitation through a hearing within the National Assembly, etc.
On the other hand, the government also proposed limitations concerning the procedures of unification of negotiating channels in the wake of union pluralism. It limits the period for designation of a majority labor union after the failure of individual collective bargaining and autonomous single channel negotiation. The period for constructing a delegation for joint negotiation in case there is no majority union is also put on a limit. Accordingly, it would take three months in maximum to start a negotiation after the procedures taken for unification of negotiating windows upon the request for a collective bargaining by the labor union.
As regards the legislative aspects, it is to remind that the Freedom of Association Committee of the ILO urged the Government of Korea in March 2009 to ensure that the payment of wages by employers to full-time union officials is not subject to legislative interference and thus enable workers and employers to conduct free and voluntary negotiations in this regard and to take rapid steps for the legalization of trade union pluralism at the enterprise level, in full consultation with all social partners concerned, so as to ensure that the right of workers to establish and join the organization of their own choosing is recognized at all levels.
The amendment of labor law in 2010 does not conform with the recommendation of the ILO, so that further revision of the TULRAA seems to be inevitable.

참고자료

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