|
Summary of a report on the present situation of woman employment
|
In Soon Wang
General Secretary of KWWAU |
Equal rights counseling and the Action Center for Unemployed Women's of the Korea Women Workers Associations United (KWWAU) and the KCTU published a report on the present situation of women employment in the first quarter of 1999 on May 18.
According to "Employment Trends of May 1999" by the National Statistical Office, the involvement rate of women in economic activities decreased 0.6% in comparison with the first quarter of 1998, and the female population not involved in economic activities increased by about 220,000 (2.2%).
As of May 1999, female unemployment has increased to 559,000, which covers 32.8% of the total unemployed population, and the unemployment rate of women has increased by 5.1% more than the rate of male unemployment. These statistics alone cannot, however, give a clear picture of the reality of female employment.
As of May 1999, two of three employed women are temporary workers. Only 30.8% of women workers are regular workers while 61.4% of men are regular workers. To further illustrate the position of female workers, the Equal Rights Counseling and the Action Center for Unemployed Women collated their counseling cases and provided a collected report. Here the KWWAU summarizes the report.
1. Present situation of female employment
A big decrease of women union members and a big increase of temporary womenworkers.
The Construction Worker Union (CWU) conducted research into the employment situation of women in 33 places of construction. The research illustrates the unstable situation of women workers (see the table).
Employment situation of female workers
(Unit: persons)
| Total employees |
25,940 |
100% |
| Female workers |
1,564 |
6% |
| Total union members |
12,200 |
47% |
| WomenUnion members |
563 |
2% |
| Temporary workers |
1,341 |
5% |
| Women Temporary workers |
319 |
1% |
Only 5% of women workers belong to the union. The total rate of organized workers is 47% while that for women is only 36%. Compared to research in April 1997, the decrease of union members as a whole is 32%, but the decrease of women union members is 47%. The rate of union involvement by temporary female workers is 23.8%.
There are companies in which all female workers are temporary, and companies with more than 50% of temporary female workers are commonplace. In large enterprises, the problem is more serious. The rate of female workers employed on a temporary basis is 88.6% in D Construction, 29.3% in H Construction, and 16.3% in J Construction.
Particularly in the case of J Construction, the number of temporary women workers exceeds that of regular women workers. This is due to the recent "Employment Control", in the implementation of which a lot of women were transferred to temporary contracts.
In the case of J Construction, women union members decreased by 94% while union membership as a whole decreased by 70%. In addition, female construction workers often remain on temporary contracts even after their working periods have been extended and often long after their male counterparts receive permanent status.
They are also overlooked for promotion, and remain in assistant positions: of the questionnaire participants, 86% work indoors, 9% work as technicians, and 1% work in sales. The most serious problems at present identified by the participants are discrimination in promotion and the language used in the workplace-modes of address and obscene talk which underline the dominant order.
High ratio of women to men for voluntary retirement, prior dismissal of temporary workers
We can confirm that in some business and financial companies the first workers dismissed were women. H Insurance Company launched a voluntary retirement scheme in April 1998 targeting those who had worked longer than seven years. 75% of the workers who volunteered to retire were women, and four out of ten were married women.
The key reason for this is that the company tried to encourage female workers to retire. In L Insurance company, 267 of a total of 3400 workers received honorary retire-ment, and 60% of them were women. L Security Corporation also implemented honorary retirement.
In the process, the branch manager encouraged female workers to retire and tried to create a difficult atmosphere for them. He threatened that "female workers will be sent to some remote branches. It is natural that we shall for the time being give temporary contracts to women workers, and we are hesitant to give women workers ordinary contracts." The workers union responded vigorously to the attitude of the branch manager.
The union managed marginally to limit the numbers of women workers given retirement. It is common for temporary workers to be primary targets for dismissal and companies with unions are not exceptional. In the case of L Security Corporation, the collective agreement negotiated by the union limited the number of temporary workers to 10%; however, the company can dismiss temporary workers if it faces crisis.
Ongoing unfair dismissal, pressure to resign after maternity leave, pressure to transfer to a temporary working position, unpaid wages
At the first quarter of this year, the proportion of callers anxious about employment instability increased to 85.3% among the counseling cases of the Hotline for Equality. Women are still targeted primarily for dismissal in a sexually discriminative manner, especially when they work at the same place as their husband. In public enterprises, the notification of dis-missal is given without following proper procedure or giving adequate ex-planation.
In small companies, the workers are dismissed for unreasonable causes. Counseling cases related to workers' maternity have increased: pressure to resign on pregnancy, non-payment of wages during maternity leave, attempts made by employees to induce resignation after maternity leave, etc.
Some companies begin to pressurize the pregnant worker immediately upon her notification of pregnancy. Through the counseling service, we can confirm the disadvanta geous situation facing wo-men workers. Under the banner of the IMF crisis, women are discouraged from taking monthly menstrual leave or maternity leave.
In public enterprises, large enterprises, small and medium enter-prises, and other private companies, the women workers are transferred to temporary working positions. Even in public enter-prises, female technicians are transferred to tem-porary positions, or are forced to resign so the companies can recruit new workers on a temporary contract.
The circumstances surrounding unpaid wages vary greatly. In small companies, there are many cases of wages unpaid without any explanation. One company requires workers to sign a written agreement agreeing to disadvantageous leaving conditions if she or he resigns before a year. One company does not pay a redundancy allowance.
One com-pany fails to pay proper wages, saying, "The contract was made based upon the annual salary and a bonus was included for the sake of convenience." Workers have to struggle hard in order to receive their wages. Those workers who have been transferred to temporary contracts have difficulty getting a redundancy payout, as the company insists that the temporary workers do not qualify.
2. The present situation of counselling concerning employment by the Action Center for Unemployed Women
The total number of cases counseled by the Action Center for Unemployed Women come to 1,649. 64.9% of callers were over 35 years old, 75.3% were high school graduates, and 81.9% were married women. It shows that those with a background of low education, the middle-aged, and married women still face the greatest difficulties in getting jobs.
40.3% of single women were fired recently and 33.5% of these women have not worked for some time. In the case of married women, 46.5% are trying to find work and 28.8.% of them have recently been sacked. 68.47% of the callers (31.4% in 1998) have registered as job-seekers.
The reason for the increased registration rate is that women wish to have the opportunity to participate in public service and other benefits related to the government unemployment pro-gram.
37.05% (33.9% in 1998) of those registered are the sole or main family breadwinners and only 2.67% of them receive the unemployment allowance. A number of jobless women are unable to receive the unemployment allowance.
According to the principle of the public labor arrangement, priority should be given to female family heads. The actual actual state of affairs does not allow women who are financially responsible for their family to have a greater chance of getting work.
The public labor arrangement limits the age of beneficiaries. Those old er than 60 years old have no chance of getting a job. Many of them have to pay monthly rent and the subsidy for living costs is much less than they need. The vocational training courses are too short to enable them to get the necessary qualifications to get jobs.
In fact many of them could not get a job even after attending vocational training courses. Most women find work through private recruitment agencies or seek jobs through job advertisements, and there are various dangers in seeking employment through these means, such as being employed by unscrupulous employers or being forced to do unsavory or perilous work.
The stated functions of the public job arrangement center should be enforced in order to protect the unemployed from double pains. The expansion of support for self-employed low-income women, proper subsidies for the cost of living, and long term public labor works are urgently needed.
3. Cheerful march of the mainstream
Under the worsening situation of employment, women workers have constantly struggled, sometimes in a group and sometimes alone. There have been many frustrations. Sometimes, however, our campaigns were concluded with jobs being restored.
The women Researcher in the Tourism Center brought a civil suit against their sexually discriminative dismissal. The eight brave women in the Masan Free Trade Zone won their jobs back through five months of struggle. The women workers of Dae Woo Construction won in court against sexually discriminative dismissal.
The caddies of Golf Club also struggled against the announcement of dismissal given to the caddies over 41 years old, and they all returned to work. The married women who resigned upon their weddings due to having signed an oath to retire upon marriage, brought a civil suit through the central labour committee case handling, and they won in court.
Institute discontinued its policy of prior dismissal of women workers owing to the head quaters of workers unions. These cases have been greatly encouraging for women workers.
In addition, some companies have transferred temporary workers to regular contracts or have encouraged their temporary workers to join their workers union. It is also recognized that several events which took place in the first quarter of this year - including the Memorial Ceremony for International Women's Day on March 8, the opening of the counseling desk particularly for sexual abuse within the workplace and sexually discriminative employment, the launch of "Proclamation of Hope", an organization for recently unemployed women, and the organization of the women workers union - are all very meaningful.
We see 1999 as a year in which the identities and needs of women workers should be recognized and made important. We hereby urge the government to listen to our demands. The Labor Standard Law and the Equal Employment Law should be implemented and the government should work actively for the improvement of employment conditions for women workers.
We also urge the government to provide stronger legal countermeasures against unfair dismissal, unfair labour conditions, unpaid wages, the pressure to resign on pregnancy, the pressure to transfer to a temporary work position, and so on.
Korea Working Women's Network 1999 |