사업장 자치, 노사협의회와 근로자대표

Abstract

The labor union has not been the only the worker’s representative system in Korean labor laws. The employees’ delegate on the Labor Standard Act and the employee-member on the Act of Labor-Management Council.<BR> This is to review the two system in the light of the workers’ representative system in general and to explore the possibility of workplace autonomy beyond the contract law. There are issues about the definition, history and need of workers’ representative system and the principle of workplace autonomy. But It’s difficult to find some studies which have explored the legal theory for the workers’ representative system.<BR> The labor union, as the employees’ organizations, is a main tool assuring rights to voice and participate for workers. But it’s not the only tool in labor laws. The employees’ representative can participate and voice on behalf of all employees in the process to determine whether a flexible time system will be introduced in a workplace under the Labor Standard Act. Also, employee-members can speak for all employees in the council about some workplace issues provided by the Labor-Management Council Act.<BR> Now, we have to review the interrelations among the labor unions, the employees’ representative system and the employee-members of the council. The union density is too low to expect that labor unions could substantially represent all workers in labor relations. However, there so many issues that have a direct effect on employees and require the employees’ participation and voice for the equal legal relations in terms of workplace democracy and self-regulations.