South Korea’s Irregular Workers’ Bill Again Before Parliament

At a parliamentary session of South Korea’s National Assembly last week, the government, along with the ruling Uri Party, vowed that approval of the so-called irregular workers’ bill will be a priority. The measure was temporarily stopped in the Assembly by procedural manoeuvres last April by the Democratic Labor Party and the Grand National Party.

The legislation, on the government’s agenda now for two years, would grant all temporary workers permanent status after two years. But the bill is opposed by South Korea’s two labour federations because the necessary safeguards and protections do not exist in the proposed legislation. The bill would create a massive pool of temporary workers for the benefit of businesses. Both the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) say the bill does nothing to defend the basic rights of contract and agency workers and, as it now stands, threatens permanent jobs with a flood of two-year temporary jobs.

The KCTU withdrew from South Korea’s Tripartite Commission over workplace governance issues last April because of the irregular workers’ bill. The federation has since re-joined the official state commission, which has conducted social discussions lately on the legislation. The Tripartite Commission also has on its agenda some 40 other labour reform measures, including a single negotiations vehicle for multi-union workplaces and cutting company salaries to trade union leaders.

The government and Uri Party leaders say they will push ahead with the reform measures even if agreement is not reached in the Tripartite Commission.

Leaders of both KCTU and FKTU met with ILO Director-General Juan Somavia on 26 August in Seoul on the irregular workers’ bill and other contentious labour problems. The federations are seeking ILO support to help resolve the issues fairly. The occasion for the meeting with Somavia was the ILO’s Asian Regional Meeting, which was held last week in Busan, South Korea’s largest port city.