The South Korean government held a Cabinet meeting to discuss changes to the Minimum Wage Act on Monday. In Monday’s meeting the government decided to include weekend work in the calculation of the minimum wage, but exclude contracted holidays from working hours.
Economic policymakers said they will finalize the revisions and introduce it at the cabinet meeting next Monday.
Once the statute comes into effect, the government will give a waiver for companies for up to nine months within the next year to amend their employment regulations and salary systems in accordance with the new act.
Regarding the new 52-hour workweek policy, the government said it will allow an extension of the six-month grace period for companies that are not complying with the workweek system to stave off growing confusion.
After a months-long joint probe, South Korea's transport ministry and a private-slash-government team has revealed the cause of a spate of fires that affected dozens of BMW vehicles.
They say it was cooler leakage caused by a faulty engine part known as exhaust gas recirculation or EGR, and that BMW deliberately concealed the defects.
At a press conference in Seoul on Monday, the team said the German auto giant was aware of the faulty EGR in 2015 as it established a task force team at its German headquarters to tackle the problem.
The investigation team said it's turning over its findings to prosecutors.
For BMW Korea's late recall of affected models, the team is pressing for a separate fine of roughly ten million U.S. dollars.
Ten South Korean officials are on a one-day trip to North Korea. for an on-site inspection of the western Gyeongui highway, as part of an ambitious project to connect the two Koreas' roads.
Officials from Seoul's Unification Ministry and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, will be inspecting some four-kilometers of highway in the Gaeseong area.
They crossed the border this morning, and are expected back at around 5 P.M., Korea time.
Unlike the joint study back in August on the road between Gaeseong and Pyeongyang, today's inspection will be done without surveying equipment.
The inspection comes just a couple of days ahead of the groundbreaking ceremony for inter-Korean railway and road connections that's scheduled for this Wednesday
South Korea has added another weapon to its maritime arsenal, which has been developed using domestic technology.
The Defense Acquisition Program Administration said Monday that it has completed the development of a surface-to-air missile called 'Sea Bow' or 'Haegung' in Korean, after a number of test firings.
The interceptor missile will help the navy defend against both aerial targets and, if needed, enemy warships.
Haegung will enter mass production next year, and it will be distributed to South Korean Navy vessels in 2021
For the first time since the ruling in late October over Japanese firms' use of forced labor from South Korea, officials from Seoul and Tokyo are going to discuss the matter.
Japan's Director-General of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau,Kenji Kanasugi, is to visit Seoul's foreign ministry this afternoon and meet with the Director-General for Northeast Asian Affairs Kim Yong-kil.
Two months ago, Seoul's Supreme Court had ordered two Japanese firms to pay compensation for unpaid work during World War II.
Japan has argued the issue was settled when the two countries normalized diplomatic relations in 1965, but recently said it hopes Seoul will respond in a way so that the legal foundation of the ties between the two are not harmed.
Seoul said it respects judicial independence but has not yet come up with an official response.
Source: Arirang News
No comments:
Post a Comment