The ruling Democratic Party(DP) has proposed postponing action on a bill to raise the statutory retirement age from 60 to 65 until the latter half of the year after the June 3 local elections. 

The DP made the proposal on Friday during a meeting of its special committee tasked with the retirement age extension effort.

The party, which had initially pledged to complete the legislation within 2025, also proposed extending the period for discussing the matter.  

A DP official said the party believes around six more months of discussion are needed to invite more views from various segments of society. 

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions walked out of Friday’s committee meeting in protest of the DP proposal, calling it an unjustified delay.

The federation said labor and management have sufficiently discussed the matter for nearly a year, stressing that it cannot accept the proposal to continue discussions after the local elections. 

The federation then said it will no longer take part in the special committee if the DP fails to revise its plan.