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2002-10-28 14:10:32, 조회 : 391 |
Causes and Socio-economic Impacts
of the Current Korean Economic Crisis
I. Causes of the Current Korean Economic Crisis
The current Korean economic crisis is caused by monopolistic Chaebol systems based on the "black" connection between politics and business and the severely government-controlled financial sector. Chaebols exert enormous power in Korea. Since the 1990s, Korean chaebols began expanding investment in other developing countries, the capital market in Korea opened to overseas investment and the world economic system dramatically changed. Chaebols accumulated massive deficits by their monopolization of funds and finances from Korean banks, excessive "octopus-style" expansion of industries and subsidiaries, and excessive and overlapping investment amongst Chaebols. Meanwhile, a massive number of small- and medium-size companies experienced tremendous difficulties borrowing funds from banks and were forced to shut-down.
The current Korean economic crisis is closely connected to Korea's economic status in the world market. In order to maintain and compensate Korea's domestic status in the world market, the authoritarian government and chaebols suppressed workers as well as small- and medium-size companies. In addition, open-door policies and neo-liberalization policies carried out by the Kim Youngsam regime made the Korean economic mechanism increasingly more unstable and insecure. This eventually brought about the current Korean economic crisis.
II. The current economic and social situations
1. The government's "Big Deals" and massive unemployment
The government is attempting to undertake so-called "Big Deals", economic reforms to change chaebols from "octopus-style" systems to core industry-oriented structures. However, the transformation has not only ignored fundamental and crucial issues such as chaebols' holdings and management style, but has also contributed to the maintenance and reinforcement of their monopolistic structures.
Moreover, the government's economic transformation efforts are based on the forced sacrifice of people and workers. The government is carrying out privatization and labor market flexibility to promote a market economy system and attract foreign investment into Korea. This has brought about the current state of massive unemployment in Korea. In February 1999, according to the government's statistics, the unemployment rate stood at 8.7%, with an unemployed population of 1,785,000. However, the actual unemployed population is believed to be more than 4,200,000 persons.
2. Poor social security nets
Although Korean people have experienced serious unemployment, social security nets are very thin. The government is forcing workers to shoulder the responsibilities for their unemployment in the current economic crisis. The employment benefit system is very limited in terms of its benefits and duration. According to the research done by the Action Center for Women's Unemployment between June and November 1998 only 2.06% of women job-seekers who took job counseling in the center received employment benefits. Moreover, the government's unemployment policies are patriarchal, so unemployed women are disadvantaged and discriminated.
III. Women workers' situations
As many as 62.7% of women workers work in very small companies (less than five workers) which are not protected by the Labor Standard Law. Women workers are the first targets for illegal retrenchment and lay-offs, especially in periods of economic crisis. In addition, regular women workers' status is reduced to temporary, part-time, daily and dispatched workers. This is largely due to patriarchy in Korean society. Women are viewed as secondary earners to men who are seen as breadwinners. This patriarchal assumption is incorporated within capitalism. and thus, rationalizes that women must be laid off before men. However, in reality, women householders make up 17% in Korean society, revealing how patriarchy is just tool for discrimination, oppression and exploitation.
(1) Unemployment
The official number of unemployed women increased from 497,000 persons (5.8% unemployment rate) in August 1998 to 583,000 persons (7.2%) in February 1999. Among 46,000 unemployed women between January and February 1999, only 15.7% women were officially classified as "unemployed." The Korean government only categorizes unemployed people as those who are actively searching for work one full week prior to the official survey. Those who work even for just an hour during that period are not classified as unemployed. Thus, in reality, there is a far higher number of actual unemployed women in society.
(2) Women workers are the first targets for lay-offs
In the current economic crisis women workers are the first targets for lay-offs and retrenchment. Women-concentrated departments and jobs are closed, women are forced to leave, and regular female workers are forced to work on an irregular basis. Under the excuse of the current economic crisis, companies lay off a massive number of women workers and engage in illegal and unfair labor practices. Maternity protection has also deteriorated.
In particular, unmarried women workers are the foremost targets for dismissals. Even in workplaces with organized trade unions, union presidents do not challenge exclusively female lay offs, especially of married women workers, and the shutting-down of women-concentrated departments. Also, in cases where a couple is employed in the same workplace, companies threaten to disadvantage male partners during promotion decisions unless the female partner resigns. Thus, couples obtain formal divorces or women workers whose partners also work in the same companies are forced to resign.
(3) Temporary women workers
In the current economic crisis women workers have become marginalized in the labor market. In 1998, male workers accounted for 64.5% of regular workers, but women workers constituted 34.0%. The rate of temporary women workers increase from 62.2% in 1997 to 66.1% in 1998. This shows that women workers are forced and/or voluntary retire from their jobs and they re-enter the labor market as temporary workers after marriage, pregnancy and child-caring. This also means that women are forced to work as temporary workers under the excuse of the current economic crisis.
Male temporary workers are concentrated in the agricultural, manufacturing and service sector by industry and occupation, but their female counterparts are widely spread across all industries and occupations. However, temporary and daily female workers are especially segregated in the agricultural and fishery industry, construction, wholesale and retail industry, food and hotel industry, and industries related to cooking and caring people.
Temporary and daily female workers have similar working hours, compared to regular workers. But they are discriminated in terms of wages, maternity protections and fringe benefits. Further, compared to temporary workers in other countries (Japan, EU countries), the level of Korean temporary female workers is extremely high.
(2) Part-time women workers
The majority of part-time workers in Korea are female. According to government statistics, women account for 78.3% of part-time workers, and the rate has been rapidly increasing. Further, part-time employment has markedly expanded to the service sector as well as the manufacturing sector.
(3) Dispatched women workers
The dispatch law was enacted in early 1998. Dispatched employment is widely used in the manufacturing sector, and has also expanded into the non-manufacturing sector. There is job segregation in terms of gender amongst dispatched workers. As many as 77.3% dispatched male workers are involved in production-related jobs and 98.2% in skilled and plumbers' jobs. Meanwhile, 84.8% of dispatched women workers work as clerical assistants, while 90.9% in servicing jobs. This shows that most dispatched women workers perform simple, manual and unskilled jobs, which is very different from the government's and business's original claim that dispatched employment would be limited to professional and skilled occupations.
(4) Organizational levels of women workers
The unionization rate of Korean workers was the highest in 1989 at 18.6%. Since then, however, the unionization has continued to drop, falling to 11.2% in 1997. A gender disparity exists in organizational rates. In 1997, the organizational rate of male workers was 16.0% but women workers was 6.2%, which shows the very low organizational level of women workers.
Further, trade unions seldom attempt to organize irregular workers. Therefore, in order to organize marginalized women workers who work in very small size workplaces and irregular workers and to protect these workers' rights, several women workers' trade unions are being set up and activities are expanding across the country to organize marginalized women workers.
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