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The nation saw a sharp rise in the number of labor-management disputes in the first seven months of this year, reflecting workers' mounting desire to take a larger slice of the growing economic pie, officials and analysts said yesterday.

According to recent Labor Ministry statistics, there were a total of 169 labor conflicts between workers and employers as of July 31, marking a 25.2-percent jump from a year ago.

The figures also showed that almost 150,000 workers went on strike in the Jan.-July period, surpassing the total number that participated in walkouts last year and marking the highest seven-month figure in nine years.

Labor experts accepted these statistics with little surprise.

"This is a very natural phenomenon that follows any recovery from a period of recession. The frequency of disputes reflects the workers' strong desire to be compensated for the losses they sustained during the recession years. Even employers knew this was coming," said Son Nak-koo, a spokesman for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), one of the nation's two umbrella labor groups.

Labor experts also noted that the increasing gap between the haves and the have-nots, despite the overall economic recovery, has driven workers to vent their dissatisfaction.

The nation's umbrella labor groups have maintained since last year that the Korean public has become divided into a rich 20 percent and a poor 80 percent. Several government reports have confirmed the emergence of this phenomenon.

The number of unemployed has dropped and now hovers at just over one million, but job security is still minimal, the figures showed. As of February, part-time and contract workers accounted for 52.3 percent of the 12.8 million Korean workers.

Meanwhile, the nation lost a total of 1.19 million working days due to labor disputes, a 23.1 percent rise from the corresponding period last year.

A growing number of walkouts at large companies, including a one-day strike by tens of thousands of bank workers in July, played a key role in this, officials said.

"We do not expect large-scale struggles in the near future, as the collective bargaining season can be seen as over," said a Labor Ministry official.

Labor disputes at partially foreign-owned firms have also sharply increased. The Labor Ministry said that there were 23 labor-management disputes at multinational companies as of July 31, compared to nine last year, two in 1998 and five in 1997.

Most disputes were over wage hikes (82.6 percent), followed by personnel and management disagreements (39.1 percent), conditions for part-time and contract workers and job security (26.1 percent).

Labor experts forecast that conflicts at these firms would increase in the future as foreign investors make further inroads into the country. "The government should take the lead in helping foreign managers understand local labor customs," a labor analyst pointed out.

Umbrella labor groups, meanwhile, predict a possible collision with the government and businesses in the latter half of the year.

At the core of the likely disagreement is labor's demand for the introduction of a five-day workweek, which businesses strongly oppose.

"We suspect an alliance between the government and businesses on this issue and on the fate of temporary workers, in which case we will fight back with all our might," said Son of the KCTU.

Son also said the government must apologize for using force to crack down on recent union activities to avoid future labor instability.