Organising and Campaign for Fundamental Labour Rights of Precarious Workers in Korea

1. Organising and Campaign for Fundamental Labour Rights of Precarious Workers in Korea Woo, Munsook, Policy Director, KCTU

2. Precarious Works at a Glance

3. Size and wages of Non-Regular Workers(Aug 2018) * KCTU estimates that the number of the total non-regular workers 10 million or more. In the government's statistics the number of dependent contractors are underestimated and the workers with open-end contract are regarded as regular workers)

4. Employment SituatioN (april, 2019) ⇒ The year on year ratio on the employment rate has been decrease and on the unemployment rate and the youth unemployment rate have been increased , and the quality of jobs are deteriorated ⇒ The increase of the employment to population ratio = Increase of the precarious employment among women, the youth and the elderly

5. Index on Gap between certain groups of workers(1) (1) Workers in Original contractor & Subcontractor (2017)

6. Index on Gap between certain groups of workers(2) 2) Regular and Non Regular(April, 2018)

7. Index on Gap between certain groups of workers(3) 3) Gender Pay Gap

8. KCTU Membership by employment status

9. History of KCTU's Organizing and Struggle for Precarious Workers

10. BackGround 1) Rapid Increase of Precarious Works • Since late1996, after the economic crisis (foreign exchange rate crisis) precarious employment had been rapidly increase due to the IMF's structural adjustment program, especially flexibilization of labour *Mass layoffs of regular workers and the regular job was replaced by precarious jobs 2) Situation of Precarious Workers -Employment Insecurity, Low Wages, Discrimination- became Social Issue • Precarious workers are intimidated to join the union & union activity due to the limitation & infringement of fundamental labour rights, and insecure employment. As the original contractors avoid their responsibility as employer for the workers in subcontracting companies and those workers cannot exercise the right to collective bargaining and collective action in effective way. 3) Crisis in Representativeness of democratic labour union movement • Limitation of existing trade unions based on regular workers organized at enterprise level

11. Progress 1) Organising Drive for precious workers became in full swing (1998~) • In-house subcontracting workers in Halla Heavy Industry(1998), Animation film workers (July, 1999, Chefs in Walkerhill Myongwolgwan (2000), Home visiting tutors, Country Club Caddies, Contracting workers in Korea Telecom, Facility maintenance workers in Seoul National University(outsourcing workers), Temp-agency workers in Broadcasting Companies, Insight Korea(Illegally Dispatched workers), Insurance Sales workers(dependent contractors) were organized themselves to trade unions and staged struggles for their fundamental rights 2) Risking their lives for overcome the employment insecurity and discrimination (Setting fire to workers themselves in protest, occupying some facilities, high altitude protest, etc) • Lee, Young-seol from Korea Labor Welfare Corporation(2003), ) Park, Il-soo, a subcontracting worker in Hhyundai Shyilbuilding Industry (2004) Ryu Ki-hyuk, a dismissed precarious worker in Hyundai Heavy Industry(2005), Park, Jong-tae, union organiser of TruckSol Division of KPTU (2009) • For 5 years since 2000, 70% of total industrial disputes arosed by precarious-worker-only trade union or in smal and midium sized workplaces, including the 517 -day -long strike or contracting workers in Korea Telecom against mass-layoffs and outsourcing, a broadly supported struggle by the workers in E-land & New-core against outsourcing, hunger strike and high altitude protest of Kiryung dispatched workers 3) Precarious workers took the central role in the democratic trade union movement based on ① self awareness and organising by precarious workers themselves ② Conscious organizing effort by existing trade unions ③ Combination of dedicated effort of organizers and precarious workers themselves at site.

12. Cases

13. Dependent Contractors Organising & Struggle

14. Progress of organizing and campaign of dependent Contracting workers • Those who used to be regular employees were converted to dependent contractors since 1990s· • Companise disgused employees to own-account business owners to effectively avoid the legal responsibility as employers. The employers maintained or even strengthened their control over those dependent contractors based on the performance based payment system. Union busting was combined and the level of flexibilization is much higher than of the temp-agency workers ○ In 2002 : <Task Force Team on Dependent Contract> was formed to strengthen unity among dependent contracting workers ○ 2003 ~ 2007 : Campaign for legal and institutional reform on dependent contracting workers's rights ○ 2008 : Repression on the trade union rights for dependent contractors. Ministry of Labour issued a correction order to the unions of construction workers to exclude the construction equipment operators and cargo truck drivers on the ground that they are not employee. The Ministry also notified that it will decertificate these unions in case they would not implement the correction order. ○ 2016~ Present : An amendment bill on the Article 2 of TULRAA has been initiated to broaden the definition of "worker"

15. Recommendations by ILO Committee on Freedom of Association regarding fundamental labour rights of dependent Contractors • According to the principles on freedom of association, all workers, with sole exception of members of the armed forces and the police, should have the right to establish and join organizations of their own choosing. • The criterion for determining the persons covered by that right is not based on the existence of an employment relationship • to hold consultations to this end with all the parties involved with the aim of finding a mutually acceptable solution so as to ensure that workers who are self-employed could fully enjoy trade union rights under Conventions Nos 87 and 98 for the purpose of furthering and defending their interest, including by the means of collective bargaining • i) ensure that organizations established or joined by heavy goods vehicle drivers have the right to join federations and confederations of their own choosing, subject to the rules of the organizations concerned and without any previous authorization; and (ii) withdraw the recommendation made to the KCWU and the KTWU to exclude owner drivers from their membership, and refrain from any measures against these federations, including under Article 9(2) of the Enforcement Decree of the TULRAA, which would deprive trade union members of being represented by their respective unions. The Committee requests to be kept informed of all measures taken or envisaged in this respect.

24. Workers In Triangular Employment Relations The case of in-house subcontracting workers : legal action on the disguised subcontracting (=illegal labour dispatch) and struggle for employer responsibility of prime contractors

25. In-house subcontracting was introduced by the corporates' greed to maximise the profit ○ Since the economic crisis of 1997 many large corporations massively dismissed the regular workers and replace the jobs by precarious ones ○ In 2000 (2 years after the labour dispatch law was enforced), in house subcontracting workers in SK Insight initiated a campaign on the illegal labour dispatch ⇒ In 2009, the Supreme court found the subcontracting in the company was disguised and an illegal labour dispatch. This was the first case recognized by court. ○ On Feb 14, 2004 a in-house subcontracting worker hired by <Inter Corporation> and worked for Hyundai Heavy Industry set fire on himself in protest, leaving a 5 pages letter saying "Subcontracting workers are human being"

26. Recommendations by ILO Committee on Freedom of Association regarding fundamental labour rights of In-house subcontracting workers • to take all the necessary measures to facilitate collective bargaining between subcontracting workers and the original contractor • to carry out without delay independent investigations into the unfair labour practice including threatening to withdraw union membership, unilateral termination of contract based on union activities and to reinstate the dismissed workers and dissuasive sanctions • to revise the Criminal Act Article 314 "Obstruction of Business" • to strengthen the freedom of association and right to collective bargaining of subcontracting/dispatched workers, to prevent any abuse of subcontracting as a way to evade in practice the exercise by these workers of their trade union right

35. Precarious Workers in Public Sector New-Public Management theory (Small Government) brought violent mass layoffs and workers' resistance

36. Struggle of Precarious Workers in Public Sector • In1998, ‘Restructuring of Public Sector ’ considered the non-regular workers as the first target of mass layoffs (41,700 in Public Institutes, 20,000 in Central Administration, 20.6% of workers in Local Government). Outsourcing, Service Contract. ○ Fixed - term contract workers in Korea Telecom: In December 2000, KT gave the dismissal notification to the 7,000 of fixed-term contract workers and convert to outsourcing → 517 day long strike ○ In 2003, Lee, Young-seok, a temp-agency worker in Korea Workers' Compensation Welfare Service set fire on himself in protest

37. President Moon declared an era of zero precariousness in public sector, Incheon International Airprot , May, 2017

38. School Meal Cooks (2017.10)

39. Dismissal against English class lecturer On July 28, 2007

40. 기간만료 계약해지, 학교 청소노동자 2007년

41. Toll Gate fee collecting workers of Korea Expressway Corporation(2019)

42. Strike for Regularization of precarious workers in ICN International Airport(2015)

43. Precarious Workers in <Korean House Affairs Association> for regularization

44. Precarious Workers in Power Plant went on a strike for regularization (2018)

45. Precarious Workers in KPTU staged a strike to urge a conversion to regular, 2018

46. Urging the goverment to take responsible measure for the death at work of a young subcontracting worker in a power plant

47. 200,000 precarious workers in Public Sector declared a Joint Strike, April, 2019

48. Fundamental Labour Rights for All KCTU's demand for Improvement of Legislations

49. Full Revision of Labour Relation Laws

50. Demands for improvement of working conditions of non-regular workers 1) Fixed-term and triangular employment relations • Workers should be employed in principle in permanent and perennial works and this should be stipulated in the Labour Standard Act • Non-regular employment can be used for temporary work only. 2) Dependent Contractors • Recognition of fundamental labour rights, Definition of WORKER in TULRAA Article 2 3) Collective Bargaining Right for workers in triangular employment relations • Original company- subcontractor Joint collective bargaining, employer responsibility of original contractor 4) Abolition of Discrimination : Equal pay for the equal work, Revision of LSA, Improvement of discrimination correction system 5) Decent Living Minimum Wage : Guarantee the right to live in dignity 6) Trade Union Rights for ALL