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30 July, 2007
South Korea’s new Irregular Workers’ Protection Law went into effect on 1 July 2007, but even before then Korean civil society got a glimpse of how little protection the new law affords contract workers.
A number of Korean employers fired irregular workers who had less than two years employment immediately before 30 June.
The most notable of these companies is E-Land Group, a retail clothing outlet that operates a number of Homever and New Core stores. The company sacked 900 workers in June, including 300 cashiers, which caused two strikes. In July, thousands of labour activists – together with many women who had been sacked – conducted sit-ins in 13 stores.
On 20 July, riot police used batons and police shields to forcibly break up the sit-ins. They hauled the protestors to police stations. Arrest warrants were then issued for the labour activists who organized the protests. The police force comes just a short month after the Labour Ministry granted 70,000 irregular workers in the public sector permanent status as an example for the private sector.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), which calls for completely amending the new statute and proposes, in part, to have equal pay for equal work provisions in the law, has demanded reinstatement for the discharged E-Land workers. KCTU has mounted a campaign on behalf of the sackings.
The firings violate provisions of a collective agreement between E-Land and unions, which state that those employed over 18 months would not face lay-offs. Many of the 900 workers were very close to two years service employment.
In December 2006, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and his Grand National Party used political maneuvering to pass the irregular workers’ bill in the waning days of a National Assembly session. The law allows employers with 300 or more workers this year to use contract or agency workers for up to two years before making them permanent employees.
The ICEM predicted that the new law would create a “revolving door” for employers to use and then discard contract workers within the two-year period. The example at E-Land bears this out.
In order to evade relevant provisions in the new law, said the KCTU, E-Land, with help from the riot police and the Roh Moo-hyun government, terminated the contractors for cashiers and others.
“The KCTU has consistently asserted that the new bill would lead to more irregular workers because the law, which was suppose to give permanent status to irregular workers, has left the door open to evade such measures, such as outsourcing and termination of contracts,” said the labour federation.
Recent statistics by the South Korean government reveal the number of irregular workers is growing. A 2007 study found that a full 35.5% of Korea’s 15 million workforce is in this category.