Rival camps held on Wednesday last-minute negotiations on deferring the enforcement of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act for companies with fewer than 50 employees but failed to iron out differences.

Such talks were held a day before holding the last plenary session for this month’s extraordinary session.  

The ruling People Power Party(PPP) proposed passing a revised bill on deferring the application of the law on such smaller businesses by one year but the main opposition Democratic Party(DP) reiterated that in order to negotiate the bill, the PPP and the government must first promise to set up an agency tasked with occupational safety and health.  

The ruling and opposition parties are set to continue discussions on the bill up until Thursday’s plenary session but it is unclear whether they will reach an agreement as both camps inevitably are aware of their support base ahead of the April 10 general elections.  

Labor groups, including the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, sided with the DP on the issue as they urged the government and ruling camp to immediately suspend negotiations on the bill during a news conference held in front of the National Assembly.  

The groups said they feel outraged and disheartened by the political sector seeking to revise for the worse a law that is already in place.