This study analyzes the economic effects of labor unions on employment, wage and the composition of employees, and attempts to answer the question of who should represent employees regardless of the presence or absence of unions.

It was not until July 2011 that Korea fully initiated the multiple labor union system. The history itself of labor union has been quite long in Korea, but labor union’s role has been studied mostly focusing on the labor-management relations. The wage effect has been one of few themes analyzed from an economic approach. In Korea’s legislative system, the collective agreement has normative superiority, and employment contract or rules are subordinate to the agreement. This naturally lets the labor union act as the most powerful decision maker. However, the reality that the unionization rate is merely 10% raises the fundamental question of whether it is justifiable for unions to make decisions as representatives of entire employees. Even the current Tripartite Commission of Labor, Manage- ment and Government has been blamed for mainly representing larger enterprises and their employees instead of all parts, which lead the representativeness of the commission in doubt.

This interdisciplinary study was conducted by experts in economics, business management and law. Those from business management analyzed changes in labor unions and labor-management relations and the effect of the human resource management as a substitute for labor unions for the period since the 2000s. The economists analyzed the effects of labor unions on the establishment’s employment size, wage, productivity, the number of employees and the proportions of non-regular employees and directly- and indirectly-hired non- regular employees. Lastly, the legal experts focused on what are needed and who should be the representative to best represent employees as a collective group.

Main findings of this study are as follows.
First, labor union’s influential power has remained in effect in the 2000s, but the characteristics of conflictive relation between labor and management has weakened and labor unions appear to be increasingly moderate. Furthermore, with the adoption of the law in July 2011 that allows multiple labor unions at a single workplace, such tendency is very likely to be reinforced further.

Second, in the sense that the human resource management is not used to substitute labor union in the workplace without labor union, Korea can be seen to be more similar to the UK than to the US. However, like the US, the human resource management in Korea is found to reduce the unionization rate within the existing labor union or to improve the labor-management relations that have been regarded as an antecedent factor to the substitution of a labor union.

Third, the analysis of labor union’s economic effects confirms that Korea’s labor unions in the mining and manufacturing industry have caused no significant influence on small-sized establishments with less than 30 employees in the aspects of employment size, wage and productivity, but the influence on those with 30 or more employees turned out differently depending on which indicators are analyzed. For medium-sized establishments with 100 or more employees, the presence of labor union raises the average wage by a minimum of 2.1% and a maximum of 12.1%. In the meantime, this study found it difficult to present accurate answers to the question regarding the effects of labor unions on employment size and productivity in these establishments. Limited data available probably caused the inconsistency in estimations. Further studies are required with more complete data.

Lastly, as a method to collectively represent employees, this study suggests the committee of employees that only consists of employees, instead of labor-management council which is a joint consultative committee between labor and management. This is because under the current system, the representativeness of labor representative or labor-management council is under question, hence there is no guarantee of collective laissez faire in the labor-management relations. In this case, the authority of the employees’ committee must be constructed within the scope that does not infringe the three primary rights of labor unions, and the committee’s legitimacy can be achieved only through democratic election, which must be fully reflected in the legislation.

발간사
요 약

제1장 우리나라 노동조합과 노사관계의 변화: 2000년대 중⋅후반을 중심으로(노용진)
　제1절 들어가는 말
　제2절 이론적 논의와 분석틀
　　1. 노사관계체제의 동태적 변동
　　2. 87년 노사관계체제의 기본 성격
　제3절 사용 자료와 노사관계 변화 현황
　　1. 사용 자료
　　2. 노사관계 변화 추이 현황
　제4절 노동조합 조직의 특성 변화에 관한 영향요인 분석
　제5절 소 결
　참고문헌
　부 록

제2장 인적자원관리와 노동조합: 대체효과 검증(김동배)
　제1절 서 론
　제2절 선행연구
　제3절 분석 결과
　　1. 인적자원관리는 무노조기업에서 빠르게 확산되었는가?
　　2. 인적자원관리, 노동조합 조직률, 노사관계 분위기
　제4절 논의 및 함의
　참고문헌

제3장 노동조합이 사업체의 고용규모와 성과지표에 미치는 영향(유경준⋅강창희)
　제1절 서 론
　제2절 선행연구
　제3절 분석 자료
　제4절 분석모형
　제5절 추정 결과
　　1. 사업체의 고용규모에 미치는 영향
　　2. 평균임금 수준에 미치는 효과
　　3. 사업체의 생산성에 미치는 효과
　제6절 결 론
　참고문헌
　부 록

제4장 우리나라 근로자대표시스템의 평가와 모색(박은정)
　제1절 서 론
　제2절 우리나라의 집단적 의사결정시스템의 현재와 해석
　　1. 집단적 의사결정시스템의 현재 모습
　　2. 근로자대표의 개념과 역할
　　3. 노사협의회의 개념과 역할
　　4. 노동조합 현황
　　5. 근로자대표기구 역할의 중복
　제3절 우리나라의 근로자대표시스템 모색
　　1. 기존 연구
　　2. 모색의 방향
　참고문헌

제5장 새로운 종업원대표시스템의 정립(이철수)
　제1절 문제의 제기
　제2절 왜 새로운 시스템이 필요한가?
　　1. 현행 종업원대표제도의 문제점
　　2. 노동조합, 과반수근로자대표, 노사협의회 간 불명확한 관계
　　3. 근로자대표로서의 노동조합의 현주소
　　4. 복수 노조 시 소수조합의 보호
　제3절 노동조합이 유일한 대안인가?
　　1. 국내의 논의
　　2. 일본의 새로운 접근법
　　3. ILO 규범에서 단결권의 향유 주체
　　4. 소 결
　제4절 근로자대표법제에 관한 비교법적 분석
　　1. 미국
　　2. 독일
　　3. 영국
　　4. 프랑스
　　5. 종합적 평가
　제5절 발전적 대안의 모색: 상설적인 종업원위원회 설치를 제안하며
　　1. 종업원위원회 모델의 제안
　　2. 종업원위원회의 역할에 대한 기본구상
　　3. 단계적 접근의 필요성
　제6절 결 론
　참고문헌
　부 록