KEF Chairman Urges Cooperation on AI Labor Relations

Korea Enterprises Federation (KEF) Chairman Sohn Kyung-shik addressed the ILO's 114th International Labour Conference in Geneva on June 10, 2026, on behalf of the Korean business community, per Korea Herald and Korea Times reporting. Delegates from governments, employers, and labor groups representing the ILO's 187 member states attended. Sohn is also chair of CJ Group.

Sohn outlined three priorities for navigating the AI transition, per Korea Herald. First, he called for governments to modernize labor regulations to create more innovation-friendly environments, saying "Outdated laws and institutions must be revised to fit a changing economic landscape." He cited Korea's specific challenges, including strong protections for regular workers and inflexible working-hour systems. Second, he called for greater vocational training, reskilling programs, and workforce-transition support to help workers and companies adapt to AI-driven changes. Third, he emphasized cooperative labor-management relations as a precondition for sustained corporate investment in innovation.

"Rapid advances in AI are reshaping the economic and social structures that affect our daily lives. While AI is expected to boost productivity and growth across industries, it is also raising concerns about disruptions to existing jobs and ways of working," Sohn said, per Korea Herald. He also said: "Excessive demands for bonuses and compensation can undermine labor-management trust, weaken corporate competitiveness and widen wage disparities."

Sohn urged the ILO to account for differing economic and labor-market conditions of member countries when developing international labor standards, calling for policy flexibility that allows individual nations to pursue innovation and growth while addressing local circumstances, Korea Herald reports.

KEF's ILO appearance signals Korean employers' effort to shape international AI-era labor norms toward regulatory flexibility and cooperative frameworks rather than prescriptive mandates - a pattern consistent with similar positions taken by employer federations in other AI-adopting economies.