To the transportation business of buses on regular routes, recently, the exceptional case system does not include the said transportation business, causing sensitive matters such as 52 hour workweek, work hour and off-hour to become an inevitable and critical hot potato. As an alternative plan to this, the flexible work, or the system of deemed working hours outside the workplace, and/or others might be suggested. However, transit buses in Seoul and Busan whereby the semi-public system is implemented solved the 52 hours workweek problem only with the introduction of the dispatching interval adjustment and shift-work system, without the period of 3 months of flexible work. Otherwise, the labor-managements in the areas where the said semi-public system is not implemented observe the current situation with the said flexible work. Therefore, labor unions in some areas are heard with rumors of the secondary strike after May 15th, 2019, and business owners are contemplating whether to employ more workers thereof.
Such cause is happened due to the exclusion of exceptional case to the public business upon the said bus transportation business, and the lack of any scrutinized analysis upon the application plan and possible effects of the 52 hour workweek system at its introduction, and the lack of comprehension upon specific plans of each regional situation to implement the system. However, I assume that the inexperienced system implementations by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and the Ministry of Employment and Labor where have the perspectives deemed as same as those of the manufacturing work patterns, take some partial responsibilities to this.
Thereby, four improvement plans to improve the confusing status of the 52 hour workweek system of the current bus transportation business abovementioned so that to compromise the relationship between labor unions and enterprises, and to maintain the amicable labour relations due to the system of work hour reduction, are needed as the followings:
First, the conception of work hour must be established clearly. For the confirmation to the peripheral works of the said bus transportation business are implemented under the command and/or supervision of the user, or to the determination of such works have business factors, is not efficiently made, thereby, these moments, of course, cannot be considered as stand-by time recognized as work-hour. For the autonomous measures of a place of business to the complication of calculating work hours, a user should not command and/or supervise the time for preparing to work and arranging to leave an office, but seek of means to reduce the work hours and, since the determination of work hours except driving hours is complicated, the actual driving hours should calculate the work hours considered the said peripheral works sufficiently so that to make their wage payments,
Second, the bus transportation business adjusts its dispatch intervals by some special cases such as season, vacation and festival, thereby, measures for each place of business to operate the flexible work of the period of such as 2 weeks, 3 months and 6 months, should be considered,
Third, with the consideration of bus transportation businesses in every area, the 'semi-public system' should be implemented on a national scale. That the buses in Seoul and Busan could easily solve the 52 hour workweek system without the introduction of flexible work system is due to the sufficient financial supports and route adjustments based on the said 'semi-public system'.
Fourth, the standard upon the maximum driving hour for a day, 2 weeks and a month should be legislated. the 'terms of compliance to the guarantee of recess of transport workers' proposed in the [Annex 4] of the Enforcement Rules of Passenger Transport Service Act, or the '(Amendment) Act to Reduce Working Hours, Feb 2018' cannot change the current situation whereby transport workers drive 16-17 hours as maximum due to the dispatch system of alternate days and/or double alternate days. Additionally, in case of transportation advanced countries such as EU, US, Japan and Australia, they have more strict regulations than those of Korea so that to prevent any fatigue to driver's health and accident due to drowsy driving. Especially, they restrict the maximum driving hour to 9-12 hours per a day, and 40-72 driving hour workweek.