• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.33-78
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• 2002

This study analyzes effects of the proposed reduction of legal working hours in Korea in which base wage is unchanged with working hours reduction. The theoretical analysis shows that a reduction of legal working hours would result in less than equal size reduction of actual working hours, and increase in wages. On the other hand, the effects on employment is ambiguous depending on the substitution effect and scale effect. An empirical analysis based on macro-economic model simulation supports the theoretical conjecture. It has been found that with the reduction of legal working hours, real wages and consumption increase while actual working hours decreases about half of the legal hours reduction. In addition, the immediate and outright imposition of legal hours reduction on all sectors of the economy is found to create a cost push inflation and reduce GDP, investment, and employment. This negative effects are lessened as the reduction of legal hours is gradually made and/or some measures to absorb the cost shock such as abolition of paid monthly leave are employed together.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.1-28
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• 2014

We use a set of Korea panel data to estimate effects of legal working hours reduction on actual hours worked and employment effects, through panel econometrics methods. Taking account of sequential decrease in legal hours worked since 2004, we estimate the relationship between legal and actual working hours by size of industries. It is found that one hour reduction of legal hours per week caused 0.44 to 1.05 actual hours worked on average per week, depending on different industrial sizes. Also, estimated employment effects were not unanimously determined, rather they turn out to be clearly size-dependent, which provide different results from exiting literature. Our analysis proposed in this work can be restrictive as, for instance, there is significant lack of data for foreign workers, particularly in the small-sized industries. Subsequent empirical analysis is expected.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.343-346
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• 2017

Background: Long working hours adversely affect worker safety and health. In 2004, Korea passed legislation that limited the work week to 40 hours, in an effort to improve quality-of-life and increase business competitiveness. This regulation was implemented in stages, first for large businesses and then for small businesses, from 2004 to 2011. We previously reported that average weekly working hours decreased from 2006 to 2010, based on the Korean Working Conditions Survey. Methods: In the present study, we examine whether average weekly working hours continued to decrease in 2014 based on the 2014 Korean Working Conditions Survey. Results: The results show that average weekly working hours among all groups of workers decreased in 2014 relative to previous years; however, self-employed individuals and employers (who are not covered by the new legislation) in the specific service sectors worked > 60 h/wk in 2014. Conclusion: The Korean government should prohibit employees from working excessive hours and should also attempt to achieve social and public consensus regarding work time reduction to improve the safety, health, and quality-of-life of all citizens, including those who are employers and self-employed.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.276-283
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• 2007

Purpose: This present study has been conducted on female workers' shorter working hours in order to look into their fatigue level and the correlation between fatigue and working hours. Method: We surveyed 237 respondents using a questionnaire from June 1st to June 20th, 2005. Results: The means of total fatigue complaint was 3.45. The fatigue level was significantly higher in the lower age group, unmarried group, manager group and shorter working duration group. And the fatigue level was significantly correlated to working hours and work intensity. In the results of stepwise multiple regression, factors affecting the fatigue level were the change of work intensity, age, regular diet habit, working hours and the type of occupation. Conclusion: It is necessary to prepare the health promotion programs, which can reduce female workers' fatigue level and relieve the intensity of their works.

• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.47-53
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• 2021

This study is a study on the change of life and leisure satisfaction caused by the reduction of working hours of office workers, summarizing the results of the analysis as follows: First, the change in the working hours of office workers was found to be men (42.4 percent), but women (54.7 percent) had a high increase in personal satisfaction, monthly income of 2 to 3 million won 96.1 percent, and personal satisfaction increased in small and medium-sized cities and towns. Second, leisure satisfaction due to shorter working hours was somewhat high in monthly income of 3 million won to 4 million won (43.6%) and more than 6 million won (39.1%), but there was no change in leisure satisfaction by gender, age, academic background, number of family members, marital status, worker status and region. The revitalization of leisure is a very important task in personal life, but it is meaningful in that it provided implications for socializing leisure as leisure satisfaction is positively spreading in life changes.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.97-108
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• 2021

Labor contracts appear in form as an exchange relationship between labor products and wages, but since they transcend the level of simple barter, they can be economically identified as "trading" and can be identified as "rental." From a legal point of view, a legal device that legally supports and imposes binding force on commodity exchange relations is a contract. Such a labor contract led to a relationship in which wages were received and a certain amount of time was placed under the direction and supervision of the employer as a counter benefit to the receipt of wages. Since working hours are subordinate hours with one's labor under the disposition authority of the employer, long hours of work can be done for the health and safety of workers and furthermore, it can be an act that violates the value to enjoy as a human being. The reduction of working hours needs to be shortened in terms of productivity and enjoyment of workers' culture so that they can expand and reproduce, but users' corporate management labor and production activities should also be compatible compared to those pursued by capitalist countries. Working hours can be seen as individual time and time in society as a whole, and long hours of work at the individual level are reduced, which is undesirable at the individual level, but an increase in products due to an increase in production time at the social level can help social development. It is necessary to consider working hours in terms of finding the balance between these individual and social levels. If the regulation method of working hours was to regulate the total amount of working hours, flexibility and elasticity of working hours are a qualitative regulation method that allows companies to flexibly allocate and organize working hours within a certain range of up to 52 hours per week. Accordingly, it is necessary to shorten working hours, but expand and implement the flexible working hours system according to the situation of the company. To this end, it is necessary to flexibly operate the flexible working hours system, which is currently limited to six months, handle the selective working hours by agreement between employers and workers, and expand the target work of discretionary working hours according to the development of information and communication technology and new types based on the 4th industrial revolution.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.57-70
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• 2022

In modern industrial capitalism, the relationship between the provision of work and the receipt of wages has become an important principle governing society. According to the labor contract, the wages provided by entrusting the right to dispose of one's labor to the employer are directly compensated, and human life should be guaranteed and reproduced with proper rest. The establishment of labor relations under free contracts represents a problem in protecting workers, and accordingly, the maximum of working hours is set as a minimum right for workers, and the standard for minimum rest is set and assigned. The reduction of working hours is very important in terms of the quality of life of workers, but it is also an important issue in efficient corporate activities. As of 2020, Korea has 1,908 hours of annual working hours, the third lowest among OECD 37 countries in the happiness index surveyed by the Sustainable Development Solution Network(SDSN), an agency under the United Nations. Accordingly, the necessity of reducing working hours has been recognized, and the maximum working hours per week has been limited to 52 hours since 2018. In this situation, various working hours are legally excluded as a way to maintain the company's value-added creation and meet the diverse needs of workers, and Korea's Labor Standards Act restricts flexible working hours within three months, flexible working hours exceeding three months, selective working hours, and extended working hours. However, in the discussion on the application of the revised flexible working hours system in 2021 and the expansion of the settlement unit period recently discussed, there is a problem with the flexible working hours system, which needs to be improved. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the problems of the flexible working hours system and improvement measures. The flexible working hours system is a system that does not violate working hours even if the legal working hours are exceeded on a specific day or week according to a predetermined standard, and does not have to pay additional wages for excessive overtime work. It is mainly useful as a form of shift work in manufacturing, sales service, continuous business or electricity, gas, water, and transportation for long-term operations. It is also used as a way to shorten working hours, such as expanding holidays through short working days. However, if the settlement unit period is expanded, it is disadvantageous to workers as the additional wages that workers can receive will not be received. Therefore, First, in order to expand the settlement unit period currently under discussion, additional wages should be paid for the period expanded from the current standard. Second, it is necessary to improve the application of the flexible working hours system to individual workers to have sufficient consultation with individual workers in a written agreement with the worker representative, Third, clarify the allowable time for extended work during the settlement unit period, and Fourth, limit the daily working hours or apply to continuous rest. In addition, since the written agreement of the worker representative is an important issue in the application of the flexible working hours system, it is necessary to secure the representation of the worker representative.

• Convergence Security Journal
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.143-150
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• 2019

Recently, As ICT technology develops, cyber attacks are becoming more intelligent and advanced. In order to cope with such cyber attacks, the security control system must be maintained 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Security personnel should be able to respond in real time to cyber attacks through shift work for 24 hours, but the workforce law was revised in 2018 to affect manpower and security control work systems. Therefore, in this paper, we propose an effective security control work system by reducing 52 working hours per week.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.149-162
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• 2007

A questionnaire was distributed to 102 teachers who worked in non-profit, for-profit and company-operated child care centers. The relationships of demographic, work conditions, and social support variables were examined by correlation, one-way ANOVA, and multiple regressions. Results showed that working hours, salary and social support were the most important factors influencing emotional exhaustion. Higher levels of burnout were found among teachers of infants and toddlers who worked for more than 12 hours on average, teachers with lower salary, and those with a lower level of social support. Results in general indicated that shorter working hours was a very important variable for reduction in burnout among teachers of infants and toddlers.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.742-752
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• 2010

In case of the working machine that using in the loud-noisy workplace, as it generates the loud-noise, it is influencing a physical, mental bad effect to those workers. Accordingly, though the noise countermeasure for the loud-noisy workplace is acutely requiring, until now, those methods that wearing the soundproof-protection tool, or restriction the working hours, and minimize the noise exposure volume, were mainly used. However, such noise countermeasures occur many problem points. On such point of view, using the acoustic simulation technique, let the workers to choose the workplace where suffering many damages due to the noise of working machine, and after grasp the physical property of working machine and indoor acoustic characteristic, this Study has attempted to grasp the reduction degree of noise level at before-improvement?after-improvement, through the sound-absorption measure. Passing through such preceding step, using auralizational technique based on the noise of working machine of before-improvement after-improvement, and by conduct psycho-acoustics evaluation, this study intended to investigate the change degree of subject reaction. As the result of evaluation, it is considering that the noise-reduction countermeasure method for the loud-noisy workplace could be much effective, through the sound-absorption measure.