제 21 호 Abolish Mandatory Holiday Closures for Large Retailers
Kicker: SOCIETY
Abolish Mandatory Holiday Closures for Large Retailers
By Yun-Seo Jung, Reporter
Where do you usually visit more, the conventional market or the big mart? Or have you ever gone to a big supermarket blindly on Sunday and just returned home because it was a holiday? At a public debate on January 22, the government announced that it will expand weekday closures of hypermarkets led by local governments to ease the inconvenience of people's lives, and remove the principle of designating mandatory holidays in the Distribution Industry Development Act. In other words, the government has decided to abolish the mandatory closures on the second and fourth Sundays of the month for Korean hypermarkets and allow online delivery during the restricted hours. It has not yet been decided when this will be implemented, but the policy is already being applied in some regions.
The current Distribution Industry Development Act stipulates that the head of a local government agency can order large supermarkets and Super SuperMarkets(SSM) to limit business hours or designate mandatory holidays. The head of a local government agency can limit business hours to between 00:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. and designate two public holidays per month as mandatory holidays. Weekdays can also be designated as mandatory holidays, but they must go through an agreement process with stakeholders such as mart labor unions and small business organizations. Gyeonggi-do Province has already amended its ordinance to designate Wednesday as the duty closing day for big mart and semi-large supermarkets. It includes 14 places, including Goyang, Anyang, Paju, Gimpo, Osan, and Gwacheon.etc. In the case of Daegu, the mandatory holiday was switched to Monday instead of Sunday from February last year, and Seocho-gu and Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, also switched the mandatory holiday to Wednesday from February.
Agreement to the Abolition of the System
So why are there arguments to abolish the policy? First, in order to know the reason for the abolition, it is necessary to know the reason why the policy was implemented. In 2012, the government mandated that large supermarkets be closed for two days every month in order to support small merchants, including traditional markets and neighborhood supermarkets, and to ensure workers' health rights. However, with the rapid growth of online retailers, such as online shopping malls and e-commerce, people did not go to traditional markets or local marts on the days when the Super Super Market (SSM) are closed, but are instead shopping at home easily. In addition, more people are using online retailers because early morning delivery is also possible. Therefore, the government has decided that the purpose of this regulation, which was implemented to protect traditional markets and small business owners, has become useless. In fact, while big marts were closing, e-commerce companies were reaping the benefits. According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the rate of sales at large retailers among major retailers has steadily fallen from 27.8 percent in 2014 to 12.7 percent in 2023. On the other hand, the proportion of online retailers' sales nearly doubled from 28.4% to 50.5% during the same period. Naturally, the traditional markets, which were the protected target, did not see the light of day. According to the analysis of big data on card spending by 1.19 million people in Seoul from July 2019 to June 2023, consumption at traditional markets and alley commercial areas did not increase on the second and fourth Sundays of the mandatory closure of supermarkets.
Opposition to the Abolition of the System
However, there are many voices of concern about the working hours of workers at large retailers. The mandatory holiday was able to guarantee the day off for workers at large retailers, but the elimination of mandatory closures means that workers' hard-earned weekend rest will be curtailed. They said that taking time off work on the weekends allows them to spend quality time with their families, but taking time off during the week reduces the amount of time they can spend with their families. They also argued that it is difficult to adjust shifts or take vacations because more people have to work in stores on Sunday as they are crowded with visitors.
Like this, there are various opinions on the abolition of mandatory holidays for large supermarkets. As convenience facilities have diversified in big marts, more and more people come to spend time with their families on weekends, and because the original purpose of the policy has become useless due to the development of e-commerce, there are some people who welcome the abolition of the system, and others who are concerned about workers' right to rest and the opposition of self-employed people in the same industry. Even if the system is revised in the future, they need to try to find a win-win solution for everyone, so I think it will be a future task to reach the middle ground that can satisfy companies, workers, self-employed people, and consumers.
Sources :
https://www.kmib.co.kr/article/view.asp?arcid=0924343173&code=11151100&cp=nv
