Symposium held: "In order to consolidate the effectiveness of correcting discrimination related to Temporary Employee Protection Act, at the point of its enforcement for 1 year"

 

Symposium held: "In order to consolidate the effectiveness of correcting discrimination related to Temporary Employee Protection Act, at the point of its enforcement for 1 year"

There are gender differences in discrimination correcting effectiveness for temporary workers.

"Deregulation policies" raised worries at the time when the government emphasizes its enforcement.

 by Park Hee-Jung[from Feminist Journal, Ilda]

The Temporary Employee Protection Act was put in force and measures on irregular workers in the public sector were taken. However, it is difficult to have a pink prospect in relation to its discrimination-correcting effectiveness for irregular  workers.

For one year since the enforcement of the Temporary Employment Protection Act, there have been a decreasing number of overall irregular workers. However, the composition of irregular employment is deemed to be worsening, because there have been a higher number of workers whose working conditions are relatively worse amongst irregular workers. What is worse is that there are distinct gender differences in the decreasing number of irregular workers.

Under this condition, worries about irregular workers have been raised, as the government has focused on "deregulation" including privatization of state-owned enterprises, in terms of labor policies and economic policies.

A higher number of irregular workers with worsening working conditions and increasing wage gaps

On July 8, 2008, Korean Women Workers Association (KWWA) and Korean Women's Trade Union (KWTU) jointly hosted a symposium titled "In order to consolidate the effectiveness of correcting discrimination related to Temporary Employee Protection Act, at the point of its enforcement for 1 year."  In the symposium, researcher Eun Soo-Mi (belonging to the Korea Labor Institute) presented her analysis of the effectiveness of the enforcement of the Temporary Employment Protection Act.

Researcher Eun mentioned that the number of fix-term workers decreased by 321,000 persons, and dispatched workers by 3,000 persons in 2008 compared to the same month of the last year, but expressed her opinion that the irregular employment composition has been possibly worsening due to the enforcement of the Temporary Employment Protection Act, because there were all increases in the number of 'the temporary workers with relatively worsening working conditions who are not expected to continue working,' outsourced and subcontracted workers, and day workers."

In particular, while the number of male workers was decreased by 125,000 persons (-4.2%), there was a decrease in the number of women workers by 10,000 persons (-0.4%) in relation to irregular workers by gender, which there was a clear gender gap. Women workers obtained similar decreases in the number of fixed workers, compared to male workers. However, in the case of workers whose contracts are repeatedly renewed and short-term workers, while there was a decline in the number of male workers by 72,000 persons (-14.5%), the number of women workers grew by 0.1%.

Researcher Eun stressed that constant follow-up surveys are needed in the case of short-term employment, since the decreased number of short-term workers was reversed and increasing.

It was found that 'wage gap' which is an essential issue in relation to discrimination against irregular workers is wider. While the size and percentage of fix-term workers and those whose contracts are repeatedly renewed was declined, there were their growing wage gaps with regular workers. 

"No" government policies for irregular workers and working poor people

Researcher Eun raised her concerns about possibly "more negative impacts" on irregular workers since "Ministry of Knowledge Economy and Ministry of Labor in a row formed teams exclusive responsible for deregulation" in the tough situation in which the enforcement of the Temporary Employment Protection Act has had limited effects.

Recently Lee Myungbak regime has focused on "deregulation" in terms of economic policies and labor policies, both. This stirs up criticism on "no active measures for irregular workers and the working poor placed in blind spots."

Researcher Eun emphasized the role of the government, saying "irregular workers are put in difficult circumstances in which their issues cannot be solved through self-regulations between the labor and the capital nor constitutional governance," "if we consider the fact that there have been a higher number of workplaces where irregular workers are on strike" such as Kiryoong Electronics, New Core, Koscom, and KTX, and that "the number of day when no work is carried out has increased 2.8 times higher in 2008 than last year."

Researcher Eun stressed that "it is the time when it is needed to monitor the enforcement of the Temporary Employment Protection Act and its problems incurred, and when required is severe evaluation of how to operate discrimination correcting and decreasing systems.

Especially, she also highlighted that current situations about indirect employment and low wage market should be investigated, and that monitoring focusing on specific employment types including day employment, short-term employment, outsourced employment, and part-time employment as well as women irregular employment should be carried out.

2008/07/15 [11:12] ⓒ www.ildaro.com

(quoted from: http://www.ildaro.com/sub_read.html?uid=4500§ion=sc2§ion2=)