The labor sector has criticized President Yoon Suk Yeol’s policy briefing, saying it only asserted that the president is disconnected from the people. 

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions(FKTU) and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions(KCTU), which are the nation’s two major umbrella unions, took issue with the achievements that Yoon had noted in labor reform during Thursday’s briefing. 

On Yoon’s remark that large-scale, illegal walkouts have disappeared and the number of lost workdays had declined by a third compared to the previous government, the FKTU said such results emerged with the government repressing labor unions and thus undermining the right of collective action. 

The federation added that even though the president has stressed the need to protect vulnerable workers, he had vetoed on two occasions revisions to labor laws that aim to give more rights to freelancers and other vulnerable laborers. 

The KCTU, in a separate statement, also criticized the law on protecting vulnerable workers, saying it’s intended to set apart strong and weak laborers. 

The KCTU said Yoon’s policy briefing was full of self-praise that lacked a sense of reality.