The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions said it had decided at a central executive committee meeting on Sept. 17 to take part in a one-point social dialogue concerning the mega special-zone bill.

It is the first time in six years, since discussions on overcoming the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, that the confederation has joined tripartite talks. It had kept its distance, objecting to how the dialogue bodies were composed and how agendas were set.

The content of the bill drove the decision. The government placed in it a white-collar exemption amounting to a carve-out from the 52-hour workweek, along with a longer permitted period for dispatched labor, and the union concluded it was better to block those items as a participant than to oppose them from outside.

Chairman Yang Kyung-soo said the union needed to enter the talks to stop the hours exemption and the white-collar carve-out while pushing for measures such as a 4.5-day week.

Business groups argue that wider latitude on working hours, at least inside the zones, is necessary to attract investment. Labor argues that a zone treated as a testing ground for deregulation tends to spread nationwide.

Even with talks under way, agreement remains some distance off. The parties must first settle whether the agenda narrows to working hours or widens to wages and forms of employment.

The bill is headed for committee debate in the National Assembly. The next question is how the outcome of the dialogue is written into its provisions.