Republic of Korea

Police block civil servants’ vote
The hitherto unrecognised Korean Government Employees Union (KGEU), which has a claimed membership of 140,000 (police say only 10,000) intended to hold a vote of members on the question of whether to go ahead with a strike on 15 November against restrictive government proposals on civil servants’ labour rights. The vote, which the government condemned as illegal, was spoiled by thousands of police and riot police who were deployed to disrupt the voting. The KGEU conducted a three-day strike from 15 November until 17 November, but vowed to take part in the national umbrella centre’s general strike beginning on Friday 26 November. The KGEU strike is said to be supported by 3,000 of its members.

Soon after the KGEU return to work, the government announced that 2,488 national and local government employees were subject to disciplinary procedures including dismissal, and immediately began procedures against 1,062 of the strikers, including 17 union activists. Police laid charges against 457 unionists.

The local media said 186 union members were arrested, while thousands of ballot papers were confiscated. Police reportedly said that only 1,900 voters managed to cast ballots.

The Civil Service Law specifically bans almost all government employees from organising unions and from taking collective industrial action. The possibility of the strike was brought to a head in October when the government disclosed proposals to give civil servants limited labour rights – the right to organise and the right to collective bargaining - inflaming KGEU members who demand full labour rights including the right to strike.

The government threatened to sack all civil servants who took part in the vote or the strike.

Korea Herald, 10 November 2004