REPUBLIC OF KOREA

Telecom contractors resist dismissal

By Kim Aehwa

200 members of Korea Telecom Contract Workers’ Union occupied one telecom branch exchange in Seoul demanding reinstatement of their jobs and formalisation of their contract status in the early morning of 29 March. But their protests ended in a brutal crack down by over 600 riot police.

Seven demonstrators including the union president were arrested and remain so as ALU goes to press.

State-run Korea Telecom issued notices to terminate contracts of 7,000 workers in December 2000. Most of these workers had worked under contract for between five and over ten years, always wishing to be permanent staff because they were paid half the permanent rate with no social security insurance.

The Korea Telecom Contract Workers Union has been on strike to formalise their working status since forming the trade union last year.

But the company and government refuse to show the good will necessary to start collective bargaining with the trade union.

The hard line taken by government and company left workers with little option but to occupy the key telecom station.

The company has sacked 12,000 full-time workers during the past three years in the name of restructuring.

Because the public sector has a social responsibility to guarantee job security, the public is critical of these redundancies.

The telecom workers’ jobs have already been outsourced to subcontractors.

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From Reuters, 27 March 2001; BBC, 7 March 2001

South Korea’s third largest car producer, Daewoo, continues to campaign for redundancies to attract foreign invest-ment.

Since the Daewoo report in ALU 37, workers have clashed regularly with police demonstrating to save their jobs.The clashes are becoming more serious as the dispute drags on. On several occasions in March, workers and students threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the police while others fought them with metal bars.

The company closed the factory at Pupyong on 16 February, claiming overproduction was the cause. The factory union argues that the real reason is to stop workers protesting. The union is a member of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) which demands a halt to all dismissals.

The KCTU vowed to continue the fight against redundancies and would broaden the campaign to fight against the government’s restructuring plans.

Daewoo was declared bankrupt in November 2001 with debts estimated at around US$10 billion. The company is seeking to make 16,000 workers redundant.

Government officials are investigating allegations of embezzlement against Daewoo Group founder Kim Woo Choong.

From Korea Times, 27 February 2001

A total 12,884 employees lost their jobs at banks and insurance companies last year.

In a government report, the Financial Supervisory Service said that banks and insurance companies sacked 5,178 and 7,706 workers respectively.

A total of 2,109 workers were forced out of jobs at two state-run investment trust companies as they converted into securities firms: Korea Investment Trust and Daehan Investment Trust. Credit co-operatives expelled 1,889 employees.

Securities companies employed 4,703 persons, and credit card and instalment finance companies created 1,446 jobs last year.

Credit card companies in particular increased the workforce by 1,057 employees.

From Dong-a Ilbo, 15 February 2001

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) plans to file suit with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) alleging that the government would infringe on its rights if a revised bill postpones allowing multiple labour unions for five years.

The KCTU says that it would campaign to prevent the legislation by using all possible means.