The Korea Local Administration Review

As a result of the regularization of non-regular workers, the number of indefinite-term contract workers and labor unions in local governments is increasing rapidly, resulting in labor disputes and the expenses required. Therefore, the response to this problem is becoming an important issue for local governments. To prepare countermeasures against this problem, this study investigated the status of local governments' indefinite-term contract worker labor unions and labor disputes and analyzed the response status of local governments. The survey found that local governments have a considerable number of indefinite-term contract workers labor unions resulting in a significant amount of labor disputes and related costs. However, the analysis of the local governments' response to the situation reveals problems such as the lack of expertise of the officials in charge of affairs, the lack of seamless of the agreement, and the limited sharing of relevant information. The short-term countermeasures proposed by this study to resolve these problems are as follows. First, there is a need to develop the expertise of those in charge. Second, higher governments need to support the negotiation process with indefinite-term contract worker labor unions. The mid- to long-term countermeasure is to create official positions for indefinite-term contract workers.