[Editorial] Participatory Government Abusing Irregular Workers

A report by the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) that says national government ministries and other public agencies hare using far to many irregular workers, and that the discriminatory treatment is serious. That is particularly lamentable when you remember how fighting discrimination against irregular workers was one of the Participatory Government's main campaign promises.

The report notes that irregular workers account for more than half of employees at some agencies, places like the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Rural Development Administration, and the Korean Culture and Arts Foundation. The report looked at 45,413 people at 1,003 government offices. The average period of continuous service for irregular workers receiving less than half of the wages of full employees was more than 2 years 4 months. There is no rarity of cases where irregulars have worked in their current jobs for more than 20 years.

Of particular note is that the government, saying it is restructuring, is essentially promoting indirect employment and the result is low wages and even "intermediary exploitation." Government agencies have led the way in "double exploitation" when they're supposed to be fighting it. A typical case would be that of the crew at KTX, the high-speed rail system. The female crew members were hired under the slogan "stewardesses on land" and are working for the rail corporation as employees of Korea Rail Distributors. Those women are being hit with "intermediary exploitation" for having 20 percent of their wages taken away before it gets to them - the rail corporation pays W2,480,000 a month, yet they receive only W1,550,000. It's a primitive labor practice on a high-tech train. You have to ask whether it is okay to institutionalize such practices at a public agency. The seriousness of the problem is that the rail corporation isn't the only place where it's happening.

And so, all told, the Participatory Government's talk about "protecting irregular workers" is just a bunch of nice packaging. Evidence of that can be seen in how the Labor Ministry, which should be leading the way in preventing the abuse of irregulars, fills 40 percent of its positions with irregular employees if you include job counselors. We call on the Participatory Government to engage in some painful self-reflection, since it is doing the exact opposite of what it said it would do when Roh Moo Hyun was running for president.

The Hankyoreh, 6 October 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]