CHEONAN — "I object. Let's save even the time we would spend voting and use it for one more round of debate."
That was the scene on the 24th at the Dadam Future Learning Center of Korea University of Technology and Education in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, where the Economic, Social and Labor Council hosted its "100-Citizen Assembly on Jobs." One hundred citizens who had given up their weekend filled the tiered lecture hall and signaled from the outset that even the assembly's own rules would be fiercely debated.
The flashpoint was Article 7, Clause 4, which stated that "where necessary, minority opinions and the reasons for them shall be recorded alongside." When one participant proposed holding a vote first to define what "where necessary" meant, a voice from the back of the room countered that the time spent voting would be better spent on discussion. The room agreed, choosing continued dialogue over a vote taken in the name of efficiency. Another participant proposed adding "people with disabilities" to the examples listed under Article 6, Clause 4 on "the various groups in our society," which had cited young people, women and older adults. With the unanimous consent of those present, the change was written into the rules.
What set this assembly apart was that the citizens themselves discussed and finalized not only the agenda but the rules they would follow. Rather than being handed guidelines prepared in advance by the organizers, participants reviewed and revised the operating principles and decision-making procedures from a blank slate.
The way the event was run also differed from the usual policy forum. There were none of the familiar conventions — congratulatory remarks by lawmakers, commemorative photographs filling the schedule, or one-way presentations from panelists on a dais that end without questions from the floor. Participants ranging from people in their 20s to those in middle age leafed through their briefing packets, underlining key passages in red pen and jotting down questions. After hearing basic explanations from experts on hand, they brought their own experiences to bear on complex labor market problems such as redesigning job classifications, working hours and compensation systems.
The assembly is the second stage of a deliberative program hosted by the Special Committee on Demographic Change and Jobs Deliberation under the Economic, Social and Labor Council, set up to find solutions to employment problems arising from demographic change. Held over two days and one night, it was designed to draw up concrete implementation plans for six core tasks in the areas of shared-growth jobs and lifelong employment, which emerged from regional discussions among 300 citizens in August and September. Citizen proposals from that first-round program, which formed the basis of the six core tasks, numbered 4,686.
The deliberative model was proposed by Kim Ji-hyung, chairman of the Economic, Social and Labor Council. A former Supreme Court justice, Kim led the Shin Kori No. 5 and 6 Public Deliberation Committee during the Moon Jae-in administration, presenting deliberative democracy as a model for resolving social conflict.
"The six tasks were not set out in advance by the council or by experts," Kim said in his opening remarks. "They are the result of members of the citizens' panel sharing their own lives and work experiences, listening to one another and deliberating." He added: "Society does not change simply because someone points in a good direction. This is a place where citizens go beyond identifying problems to design concrete solutions themselves."
Social dialogue in South Korea has long stalled over gaps between labor, management and government. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, in particular, harbors deep distrust of the council — the presidential body for tripartite social dialogue — which it regards as a rubber-stamp organization that legitimizes government policy. That is the backdrop to its 27-year absence: the confederation withdrew from the Tripartite Commission, the council's predecessor, in February 1999 and has not formally returned through 10 changes of chairman. Last month, an internal proposal to put a possible return to the council on the agenda as a formal item was floated but ultimately shelved. It is also why some in the labor movement have criticized the council as a playground for experts.
The 100-citizen assembly showed that the existing framework of tripartite dialogue could be shifted toward one centered on citizens. In the breakout sessions, specific cases were put on the table: the anxieties of young people about to enter the job market, the difficulties of returning to work after parental leave, and the gaps in pay and working conditions encountered when seeking re-employment after retirement.
After the morning plenary session ended, the breakout discussions that began in the afternoon in first-floor meeting rooms were held entirely behind closed doors. To guarantee autonomous deliberation free of outside intervention, even Kim, who had proposed the deliberative process, and other council officials were barred from observing. The plenary ran on a timetable broken into 10- to 15-minute blocks, but the group discussions on the first floor ran past their allotted time as debate continued. Every remark and opinion voiced by the citizens was recorded without omission, and the main sessions apart from the closed discussions were streamed live on YouTube.
The implementation plans and records of the remarks produced that day could become actual government policy. The council plans to compile them into a final "citizens' proposal" after a third stage of deliberation on the 14th of next month. The document will then be used, following a final public deliberation session in December, as the primary source material for government ministry policy and for the tripartite social dialogue table. In effect, 100 citizens have filled a gap left by the limits of social dialogue as practiced by the existing tripartite actors.
