2026 Shall Mark the Dawn of the Right to Collective Bargaining for Precarious, Disguised-Self employed, and Subcontracted Workers
Today, the National Assembly of Republic of Korea has finally passed the amendment to Articles 2 and 3 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Adjustment Act(TULRAA). For over twenty years, countless martyrs have fallen, and workers have filled the streets with their blood, sweat and voices, crying out: “End damage claims and provisional seizures used to suppress unions! Principal employers must come to the bargaining table! Amend the TULRAA!” Our calls have not been in vain. Today’s achievement is the historic fruit of their noble sacrifice. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions welcomes this with profound emotion.
Yet this amendment is not complete. Countless workers remain outside the law’s protection, whilst employers continue their cunning evasion and the government’s measures remain inadequate. Today marks not an end, but a beginning. The KCTU shall mobilise its full organisational strength to secure the remaining tasks.
Every working person has the right to organise and bargain collectively with their employers. This simple and clear truth has finally been enshrined in law after twenty years. The KCTU shall advance towards even greater expansion of rights based on this achievement.
The KCTU immediately activates the ‘Campaign Headquarters for Realising the right to collective bargaining with Principal Employes’. From the moment the amended TULRRA takes effect in March 2026, we shall ensure its power lives and breathes in every workplace. To make 2026 the ‘inaugural year for fundamental labour rights of precarious workers’, we shall launch total struggle to make negotiation rights guarantees and expanded worker status a reality. Rights shall live and breathe in workplaces, not merely in legal provisions.
We declare with certainty: The KCTU shall stand shoulder to shoulder with workers on the ground, fighting to the end against repression. No difficulty, no barrier shall stop us.
We make clear to the Lee Jae-myung government: The law has passed, but without follow-up guidelines and measures, it is worthless. The KCTU strongly demands the government responsibly produce concrete measures befitting the law’s spirit. Should the government damage or diminish workers’ rights, we shall respond with total struggle.
The business community must not dream of any attempt to deny or neutralise this amendment. The TULRRA amendment is now irreversible. It is a historic decision made by workers and citizens. Should you evade negotiation and responsibility, the KCTU shall hold ‘principal employers’ accountable through total organisational struggle. We shall compel employer responsibility through workplace power that transcends law.
The KCTU declares today not an end, but a beginning. Until we secure labour rights for all workers, until we break the chains of inequality, until we open a world where workers are masters, our struggle shall not cease.
We are witnesses to history. We have come this far through blood, sweat and sacrifice. The road ahead shall be no easier. Yet the KCTU shall advance step by step to the very end. Against all forces that trample workers’ rights, we shall march towards greater and more complete liberation.
24 August 2025
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions