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Will the sunset clause of the Safe Trucking Freight Rate System be extended? To be decided in the plenary session on Dec. 28.
The expiration date of the Safe Trucking Freight Rate System, the main cause of the general strike by the Cargo Truckers Solidarity union (“TruckSol”), is impending, but the ruling and main opposition parties have yet to reach a consensus on the matter. With negotiations between the government and the truckers’ union breaking down, the system seems to be headed for termination.
On Nov. 24, truckers from TruckSol staged another strike, demanding a permanent safe trucking freight rate system and the expansion of its application to other freight items. However, despite failing to have their demands met by the government, TruckSol’s central executive committee decided in an emergency meeting on Dec. 8 to have union members vote on whether to end the walkout. Analysts believe that hard-line government tactics, such as the unprecedented issuance of the presidential executive start-work order under the Trucking Transport Business Act which forced truckers to return to work, announcements to cease the payment of fuel subsidies, and the government’s unrelenting stance on claims for damages, led to the end of the strike. Another reason for the fizzle out could also be due to TruckSol’s failure to garner public sympathy. In a nationwide survey of 1000 adults conducted by Gallup Korea for four days from Dec. 6, 71% responded that Truck-Sol should “first return to work before continuing negotiations.”
The safe trucking freight rate system was introduced in 2018 to promote road safety and prevent workers from overworking, overloading, and speeding by guaranteeing minimum freight rates to truck drivers. Due to the opposition by shippers and trucking businesses and concerns about market disruption, the safe trucking freight rate system included a sunset clause of 3 years and had its application limited to two freight items: export/import containers and cement. Without further amendments on related Acts, the system will expire as planned on Dec. 31, 2022. After a long struggle, the ruling party and the main opposition party decided on Dec. 22 to settle matters related to sunset provisions, including the safe trucking freight rate system, along with the 2023 budget at the plenary session on Dec. 28.
Despite the conclusion of the truckers’ strike and the agreement between the ruling party and the main opposition party to settle affairs on sunset provisions, these events have left quite an aftereffect. The ruling party and the current government are maintaining their position that the safe trucking freight rate system must be reviewed from the very beginning. The People Power Party Policy Committee Chairman Il Jong Sung stated that “accidental deaths have conversely increased after the implementation the safe trucking freight rate system advocated by TruckSol. We must correct such systems that are safe only in name and do little to ensure actual safety.” The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has made it clear that it will not prioritize the amendment of just the safe trucking freight rate system in time for its impending expiration. Rather, even if it means letting the system expire, the Ministry aims to come up with one comprehensive amendment plan that will encompass matters of the entire logistics industry.
Meanwhile, the ruling and opposition parties had clashed again in the National Assembly on the validity of the government’s proposal on 3-year extension of the safe trucking freight rate system’s sunset clause introduced just before TruckSol commenced the general strike. On Dec. 9, the main opposition party members of the Land, Infrastructure & Transport Committee of the National Assembly had unilaterally passed an amendment bill containing the aforementioned 3-year extension of the system with the absence of the committee members of the ruling party.
However, there is the possibility that the 3-year extension bill passed by the main opposition party will not be able to pass the review of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, which is currently under the ruling party. Even if the bill somehow makes it past the review of the committee and is approved in the Plenary Session of the National Assembly, President Suk Yeol Yoon, who has repeatedly vowed to reform the labor market, may veto the bill, which all suggest the possibility that the safe trucking freight system will terminate according to its initial sunset provision. For now, the ruling and opposition parties have decided with much difficulty to settle affairs during the upcoming plenary session. However, with the ruling and opposition parties having sharply contrasting views and the government and labor unions at a deadlock on the issue, industrial and political circles have been watching the situation with great interest on whether the safe trucking freight rate system will terminate or be extended.
As the first-ever Korean law firm to issue specialized legislative journals, DR & AJU LLC has been publishing the monthly Policy & Business Report since August 2019. The December 2022 issue of the P&B Report conducted a full inspection of legislation proposed to the National Assembly Subcommittee, Standing Committee, and Plenary Session from November 15, 2022, to December 14, 2022, and selected and analyzed legislation with a significant impact on corporate activities. In the case of major legislation, key mentions of legislators, members of the Standing Committee, and government officials are included.
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