11 November, 2010On the occasion of the G20 meeting in Seoul, the global union movement calls for the Korean government to honour its international commitments and respect workers' rights.
KOREA: On November 11, the first day of the G20 Seoul Summit, the Global Unions held a press conference in Seoul to draw the world's attention to the continuing abuses of labour rights in Korea.
Spokesperson for the global unions, Ambet Yuson, General Secretary of BWI, told the assembled local and international press that the global trade union movement takes the labour rights situation in Korea very seriously. In a campaign coordinated by IMF ahead of the G20 meetings, hundreds of trade unions throughout the world wrote to the Korean President, Lee Myung-bak, calling on him to respect internationally-recognised labour standards and put an end to the attacks on workers and their unions.
The anti-union activities of the Korean government are well documented. They include dismissals, massive compensation claims against unions and individuals, arrests, detentions, imprisonments and physical assaults for trade union activities that in other G20 countries would not be considered unlawful.
The press conference focused on three key areas of continuing labour rights violations in Korea, namely:
- The use of criminal sanctions under Article 314 of the criminal code to arrest and imprison trade unionists for exercising their legitimate right to conduct trade union activities.
- Denial of the rights of workers in precarious or irregular employment to join a trade union and bargain collectively and the systematic use by employers of precarious employment contracts, specifically to prevent them from forming and joining trade unions.
- Anti-union discrimination against public sector workers that denies many of them the right to join a trade union.
Yuson referred to the long-running struggle by workers at Kiryung Electronics for regularization as full time permanent workers and recognition of their trade union, who last week achieved victory.
Kim Young-hoon, KCTU President, during the press conference said, "Korea should stop signing trade agreements and start signing ILO conventions that guarantee basic labour rights."
Kim Ju-young, FKTU Vice President, also speaking at the press conference said, "Korea must fulfil its promises made to international bodies. Irregular workers are most in need of labour rights guarantees as theirs are the rights most trampled on."
While the Korean government is utilizing its role as host of the G-20 Meetings to showcase its prominence and leadership in the global arena, the global unions pointed out that the government cannot be truly recognized as an international leader as long as it continues to use repressive measures against workers and trade unions.
Although the global unions were not accorded a meeting with the Korean Labour Minister, representatives of the Trade Union G20 Summit met with the Korean President, who gave his assurance that the Labour Minister will make himself available to discuss labour rights issues with the KCTU and the FKTU after the G20 summit.
Speaking on behalf of global unions, Yuson concluded to the assembled media that they should "rest assured that the global unions will continue to support the struggle of the Korean trade unions for the rights of working people until there is an end to the violence and repression."