Anchor: The government officially scrapped two major guidelines that had served as key parts of labor reform efforts of the previous Park Geun-hye administration. The rules had sparked conflict between the government and the labor sector and drew strong criticism from the Federation of Korean Trade Unions.
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.
                                           
Report: The Ministry of Employment and Labor on Monday held a meeting with the heads of 47 agencies affiliated with the ministry and decided to scrap two key regulations that were part of the previous government’s labor reform plan.
 
The two guidelines were unveiled in January of last year and drew strong opposition from the labor sector which claimed they enabled easy dismissal and marked a turn for the worse.
 
The main focus of the so-called "fair personnel management" guideline was making it possible to dismiss employees who yielded poor performances.
 
The regulation on "operating rules of employment" sought to ease laws on securing the majority consent of the labor union or laborers in case a business owner tried to introduce rules deemed disadvantageous for employees.
 
In protest of the regulations, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions withdrew from a tripartite body composed of the government, business and labor on January 22nd of last year. South Korea's largest umbrella union continuously called for the abolition of the two regulations and set the abandonment of the rules as one prerequisite for holding labor-government dialogue.
 
The labor ministry said on Monday that the previous government introduced the two regulations unilaterally without holding sufficient discussions with the labor sector and without gaining social consensus.
 
The ministry said that the government decided to scrap the regulations as they continued to draw confusion during their implementation process. 

The ministry added that it hopes the latest move will lead to the restoration of dialogue.
 
It was only a matter of time before the two regulations were scrapped under the incumbent government as President Moon Jae-in had promised the abolition of the rules during his presidential campaign and as labor minister Kim Young-joo had made the same promise during her confirmation hearing.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.