It is very meaningful that the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) has issued a final judgment in a case where a bank refused to rehire some irregular workers, saying that the action was a "wrongful dismissal," because it is a warning about the practice of increasing irregular employees and then firing them at will.
Twenty-four workers had to endure a painful fight against that practice before the NLRC's decision. They were had started as regular bank employees but they became irregular workers and had been working for W1 million a month before being informed that their contracts were being terminated. They petitioned on the grounds it was "wrongful dismissal" and received a judgment first from their regional labor relations commission and now from the NLRC. It was a lot of trouble and but their persistent struggle saw fruit.
The problem is that the bank's management is still showing no sign of reflection for their actions. When they wrongfully dismissed the irregular workers the bank gave the unpersuasive excuse that the work they were doing was being done away with. Those who were fired, however, were active in the irregular workers' union or critical of the management, which even after the NLRC's decision has refused to reinstate them and says it will take the decision to court. That is regrettable. Commercial banks employ 24,000 irregular workers, 30 percent of all irregular workers. Did not banks enjoy W8 trillion in net profits last year?
The collective bargaining agreement reached last year with the financial workers' union stipulates that members who the NLRC finds to have been wrongfully dismissed are to be immediately reinstated. The bank is claiming that the branch of the irregular workers' union in this case was not party to that agreement and therefore its members are not covered by it. The regular workers' union needs to get actively involved here. We commend the NLRC's judgment for sounding the alarm on a situation that continues to produce a large number of irregular workers.
The Hankyoreh, 31 May 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] The Indiscriminate Firing of Irregular Workers |
