South Korea small merchants plan rally over labor rules

June 1 (Asia Today) -- South Korean small business owners plan to hold a large rally outside the National Assembly next week, calling for emergency support and a major shift in labor policy as they warn that many shops are being pushed to the brink.

Song Chi-young, chairman of the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise, said Monday that the country's 7.9 million small merchants are "hanging from the edge of the deepest and darkest cliff."

"We cannot hold out any longer," Song said during a visit to the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business in Seoul's Yeouido district.

The rally, scheduled for June 9 near National Assembly Station, will be hosted by a small business survival rights campaign group and organized by the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise. More than 3,000 small business owners from across the country are expected to attend.

The group says small merchants are under severe pressure from high prices, high interest rates and a weak won, as well as rising labor costs, rent, public utility charges, raw material prices and platform fees.

Song said more than 1 million small business owners closed their businesses in 2024. He said small merchants need at least 23 trillion won, about $16.7 billion, to maintain basic survival.

"The government says it is working for small business owners, but it has been passive toward a demand tied to the survival of 7.9 million people," Song said.

Song strongly criticized proposals to expand Labor Standards Act protections to workplaces with fewer than five employees, calling the move a policy that would destroy small businesses.

"Putting shackles on small workplaces that do not even have the ability to pay is no different from telling everyone to close their shops and sit in the street," he said.

He also called for an immediate halt to efforts to promote a proposed basic law for working people.

Song said current policy debates focus too much on large companies, stock prices and excess profits while ignoring small merchants who live day to day.

"In today's employment policy, there is no employment, only forced labor," he said.

The federation plans to formalize five policy demands at the rally. They include blocking the expansion of the Labor Standards Act to the smallest workplaces, reforming the minimum wage system by abolishing weekly holiday allowances and allowing differentiated wage rates, securing collective rights for small business owners, building a social safety net for small merchants and opposing expanded early morning delivery.

Song said many small business owners are joining the rally despite having to close their shops for the day.

"Closing the shutters and going out onto the asphalt is a decision made with a bleeding heart," he said. "It is difficult to sustain rally momentum in the current poor business environment, but we have nowhere else to retreat."

Song said the rally is not about partisan politics but about the right to survive.

"The government and the National Assembly must immediately move toward a major shift in employment policy and prepare effective legislation," he said.

-- Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

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Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260601010000240

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This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 7:58 PM.