[vol.17] [Feature] Organazational strategies of irregular women worker
WORKING WOMAN 2008. 3. 21. 10:49Summarized by Moh, Yoonsook(head of Education Dept. IWWA)
It is very urgent and necessary to organize irregular women workers in the women workers' movement. KWWAU jointly carried out research and organized a workshop of organizational strategies of irregular women workers with the Korean Women Studies Institute (KWSI) and Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) on November 10, 1998. We summarize research results.
Under the current economic crisis where irregular workers have rapidly increased, trade union and/or irregular workers seldom take organized action against their situation. In particular, the present enterprise-based trade union system centered on regular workers is restricted in its possibilities to represent and defend irregular workers' interests and demands. Hence, the issue of organizing irregular workers who can be found throughout society is an unavoidable and urgent task in the trade union movement and the women workers' movement.
- Employment trends of irregular women workers
Under the current economic crisis, many companies have discriminated against women and forced regular female workers to become irregular workers under the pretense of necessary restructuring. In particular, married women have been illegally targeted for irregular employment. In the process of restructuring, women are targets of this practice.
Regular women workers are dismissed and/or victims of the closure of their women-concentrated departments and then re-employed through temporary employment agencies. In addition, companies usually terminate female workers who attempt to resist these unfair labor practices. Since companies target female workers first and concentrate on women for unfair labor practices, the irregular employment of women workers has rapidly increased.
- Employment situation by type
- part-time Employment
- employment situation
In the Korean IMF era, the number of workers working under 36 hours (they are usually classified as part-time workers) has been on the increase, but 36, or more, hours on the decrease. This means that job security has become worsened. Research conducted by the Ministry of Labor shows that about 80% of part-time workers are women.
In the 1990s, while the number of part-timers has decreased dramatically in the agricultural and fishery industries, the number has increased rapidly in the finance and insurance industries, wholesale and retail industries and the food and hotel industries. In 1994 part-time workers accounted for 22.4% in the manufacturing industry, 16.8% in the wholesale and retail industries, and 39.3% in the food and hotel industries. This implies that part-time employment has spread in the service sector in particular.
In terms of marriage status of part-time workers by industry, the distribution industry mostly employs married women workers, and the bank and hospital industries unmarried women workers. Married women are employed in the form of 'housewife part-timers' in department stores or they are contracted out as 'housewife tellers' after their retirement. In the case of unmarried women, they are employed as 'part-time nurses' and their contracts are renewed in the form of part-time employment.
There has been an the increase of part-time workers in the 20s and 30s age groups. They made up 23.9% amongst the age group of 20-29, and 26.5% in the age group of 30-39 in the 1980s, and increased to 31.0% and 31.0% in 1994. Among male part-timers, the age group of 20- 29 accounted for 72.9% and others merely 10%.
According to their gender and age, part-time male workers made up 29.3%, but female 70.7%. This implies that part-time employment is not only a form of employment allowing women to work while also performing housework and caring for their children, but instead it is used to replace unmarried female workers by married female workers.
The most outstanding characteristic of this form of employment is that a very large proportion of part-timer workers are women. In fact, the entire married and unmarried female labor force is now irregular, whereas before part-timers were generally married women. This is due to the fact, first, work opportunities are very limited to married women and no social supports for house-work or child caring, are available to them. And second, unmarried women are now vulnerable in the labor market since they are hired under nominal part-time contracts.
- Condition of labor
A survey on irregular workers in the distribution industry conducted by the Korean Federation of Commercial Workers' Union (KFCWU) in 1997, found that the average hours worked per week by part-timers were 45.76 hours.
However, part-time workers have received lower wages (they are not paid allowances, overtime pay, and receive no vocation), compared to regular workers. The average monthly wages of part-time workers are much lower than the first payment of regular workers performing similar work in the bank, retail and hospital industries.
Part-time workers are discriminated in terms of all allowances as well as in terms of wages. Bonus accounted for 4.3%, retirement allowance 13.0% out of all allowances received by part-time workers, overtime pay 37.5%, and payment for work on holiday 29.2%. Regular workers obtained almost 95% of every allowance, but part-time workers were severely discriminated. In addition, they seldom receive monthly leaves, yearly leaves or menstruation leaves.
- employment situation
- Dispatched workers
According to a report issued in 1992, there were 120 manpower agencies, and 74 recruiters, but there are today 2,699 manpower agencies, 3,164 recruiters with over 100 workers, and 100,000 dispatched workers.
If adding an already illegal form of dispatched employment such as cleaners and care-takers, manpower agencies are projected to grow to 3,573, recruiters to 3,954 (more than 30 workers) and dispatched workers to 225,000. Dispatched workers account for 3.75% of the total number of 6 million Korean workers, which is much higher than figures in some other developed countries. However, since dispatched employment has so far been considered as illegal, there probably is a much higher number of dispatched workers in reality.
- The reality of employment
The manufacturing industry employed 59.3% the dispatched workers surveyed representing the highest percentage. This shows that the claim made by the government and industry that dispatched employment occurs in specialized and skillful areas, is false. In addition, the service industry makes up 18.5% of non-manufacturing sector.
In addition, dispatched employment has a clear gender segregation. In the manufacturing sector, men account for 64.6% of production workers, 88.5% of assisting production workers, and 98.2% of technical plumbers. Women made up 84.8% of clerical assistants, and 90.9% of service related work.
The current trends in the employment of regular workers have been decreasing while the number of dispatched workers have been increasing. The highest increase in the number of dispatched workers is in production jobs in the manufacturing sector. In particular, the number of dispatched workers has sharply increased in large-size companies. The service sector has also seen large increase in the number employed.
In terms of age distribution, 57.6% of women are between the ages of 10-29, but also that men have a relatively even distribution between all age groups. This shows that women have more difficulties in finding regular jobs and have to turn to dispatched jobs.
- Working conditions
Dispatched workers have less working days a month and/or working hours a week of regular workers. However, they have longer working hours per day. The different wage levels between regular workers and dispatched workers. Dispatched workers earned 67.7% of the average wages of regular workers. In addition, men earned 74.3% of regular workers' wages and women only 50.9%.
Dispatched workers are discriminated against in terms of wages and all additional monetary benefits. While regular workers received almost all benefits, dispatched workers received no more than 50% of the benefits. In particular, dispatched workers obtained 29.7% of maternity leaves, which means women's pregnancy and child-caring often caused unemployment. Hence, women face more severe job insecurity.
Only 9.1% companies employed dispatched workers because of a shortage of labor as claimed by the government and industry, but 86.7% employed them regularly to carry out particular tasks. This means that using dispatched workers is in fact a replacement of regular workers and a way to obtain cheap labor.
The regular employment of dispatched workers when surveying the duration of employment of dispatch workers. The companies employing dispatched workers in the long term such as over 3 years, made up the highest percentage (28.1%). Amongst dispatched workers 56.9% are employed for more than 1 year. No differences cannot be found by industry and size of company. Hence, the employment of dispatched workers in large size companies has been consolidated and expanded.
- A majority of dispatched workers are unorganized
Members of trade unions constituted 4.6% amongst dispatched workers. Many workers answered 'trade union are not set up yet,' or 'there is a trade union, but I don't join a trade union', which shows a situation in which trade unions target dispatched workers. The membership of dispatched workers can also be co-related to the level of activism by the trade unions of the recruiting companies.
- The reality of employment
- Temporary/day employment
In Korea, since different definitions are used by the Ministry of Labor and the National Statistical Office, and even definitions used by the National Statistical Office vary yearly, classification drawing a difference between temporary workers and day workers is difficult.
- Employment situation
Employment trends of temporary workers since 1990. About 30% of workers were employed on a temporary basis. Male temporary workers made up about 29%, and women over 40%, which shows that women's employment has become temporary. Compared to 1990, temporary employment has slightly increased overall.
However, the percentage of male workers has been decreased, but that of women increased from 39.6% in 1990 to 43.2% in 1996. This shows that a higher number of women have entered the labor market as temporary workers rather than regular workers, and along with the number of temporary workers has been on increase.
The ratio of female temporary workers reached 60%, similar to that 1997. In particular, the wholesale, food and hotel industries employed the largest number female temporary workers, and the ratio of female temporary workers was high in the finance, insurance and service industries.
- Working condition
Temporary and day workers have shorter average working days per month and average working hours per week, than regular workers. However, they receive only half the vacations of regular workers. Temporary and day workers obtained 67.7% of the wages of regular workers.
The great majority of regular workers receive almost all of the additional benefits available. Temporary and day workers received only 62.7% of regular workers' overtime pay, even if they also do over-time work. They seldom receive employment insurance, pension and so on, so that they face more financial difficulties as well as job insecurity.
51.1% of temporary and day workers replied that they made 1 year contracts. However, this includes cases of renewed year contracts, so that they were essentially the same as regular workers. In addition, 25.5% of temporary and day workers were treated differently from regular workers in terms of wages and other working conditions because they had no specific terms of contracts.
- Their relation with trade unions
Although 98.1% of regular workers are organized into trade unions, membership of temporary and day workers is just 11.1%. In item of trade unions' attempt to organize irregular workers, as many as 26.1% of temporary and day workers surveyed responded that 'I do not know of any union activism,' which shows their indifference to enterprise-based trade unions. However, this means not only their indifference to trade unions but also trade unions' lacking efforts in organizing temporary and day workers.
Irregular forms of employment such as part-time employment, dispatched employment and temporary and day employment has expanded because of the demand of industry, especially under the current economic turmoil. As a consequence, the replacement of regular workers by irregular workers, worsening working conditions and lower wages, their job insecurity has seriously worsened, and trade unions have been dismantled. Hence, the issue of organizing irregular workers is an urgent task in the trade union movement and the women workers' movement.
- Employment situation
- part-time Employment