Democratic Party lawmakers born in the '80s: 'We can't erase youth for the sake of retirement age'

Mo Gyeong-jong, Park Ji-won and Jang Cheol-min ask: 'How does raising the retirement age sound to young people?'

Lawmakers call for bipartisan, pan-government body to redesign employment system from the ground up

'We are not against extending the retirement age itself — what we are questioning is the order'

Mo Gyeong-jong, the Democratic Party of Korea's national youth committee chair, speaks at a press conference at the National Assembly on Thursday regarding the extension of the statutory retirement age. Young Democratic Party lawmakers born in the 1980s said youth have been excluded from the current labor-management-centered debate and called for a full redesign of the employment system. [Yonhap]

As the extension of the statutory retirement age emerges as a major social issue — driven by the approaching retirement of the baby boom generation and rising life expectancy — young Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers born in the 1980s said youth have been shut out of the current debate, which has centered on labor and management.

They said the entire employment system, from hiring and job retention through to retirement, needs to be redesigned from scratch.

Lawmakers Mo Gyeong-jong (born 1989), Park Ji-won (born 1987) and Jang Cheol-min (born 1983) held a press conference at the National Assembly on Thursday, urging that decisions affecting young people's futures not be made without them. "The current discussion on extending the retirement age is being conducted as a back-and-forth between labor and management — two parties sitting across from each other exchanging demands — but solutions to the problem of youth employment are nowhere to be found," they said.

"The generation that will have to live for decades in the labor market shaped by a retirement age extension — the generation that will bear the consequences the longest — has no opportunity to make its voice heard," they said. "How do you think young people in South Korea today hear the word 'retirement age'?"

They said that in a reality where simply landing a job with retirement age protections has become a narrow gate, extending the retirement age amounts to telling young people to shoulder the burden without receiving any of the benefits. "If things continue as they are, extending the retirement age will not dismantle the dual structure of the labor market — it will only entrench it further," they said.

The lawmakers were careful to clarify that they do not oppose extending the retirement age outright. "We understand that the social structure leaves people with no choice but to work longer, and that the income gap between retirement and pension eligibility must be filled. Protecting the livelihoods of older workers in their later years is a burden our society must rightly bear," they said. "What we are questioning is the order."

They said the entire employment system is outdated — covering every stage from hiring and workplace life to retirement. "How do we hire people, how do we keep them employed longer, how do we design retirement? The whole system is obsolete," they said. "What needs to be drawn up before any retirement age extension is the big picture of employment as a whole."

They also proposed broadening the debate beyond a labor-management exchange to encompass a full redesign of the employment system spanning hiring, job retention and retirement. "We propose that a bipartisan, pan-government deliberative body be formed right now — one that transcends party lines and breaks down the walls between government ministries," they said.

The lawmakers also appealed to Cheong Wa Dae, urging it to mobilize for generational balance as it once did for regional balance. "Just as the entire nation came together to produce visible results for regional equity, we ask that you now move together for generational equity," they said.

shindw@heraldcorp.com