[vol.20] [Voices from the workplace] After devoting our youth to the company, must we pay the price of unjust dismissal?

Voice from the workplace 3.

After devoting our youth to the company,
must we pay the price of unjust dismissal?

Deuk Jong Kim
A member of the KWTU

The dismissed workers of Hotel Lotte, co. were found in the center of Sogong Dong wearing a headband written "Give me my job back". The slogan, which they then shouted for the first time in their lives, is not new to them any more.

"If 45 years old is too old, then Seong Won Jang, who is 73 years old, should suffer the Goryo Jang treatment!"

The dismissed workers felt free to shout that slogan, as they had worked for ten years for the company and were summarily dismissed.

They had worked for eight hours a day for a long period of time but were treated in an inferior manner due to their status as irregular workers. They haven't been able to apply for the four main social insurances or to obtain assistance through the Labor Standard Law.

Even the trade union did not allow them to join because they were irregular workers. In Hotel Lotte, Co., about a thousand workers, one-third of all employees, are working on an irregular basis.

In 1998 those who were over 50 years old and those who had worked for more than ten years were put on the list of dismissals and in 1999 the same fate was suffered by those who were over 45 years old and those who had worked for over 8 years.

So, a total 140 women were dismissed. 54 of them applied to the Local Labor Office for the restoration of their jobs and have been campaigning for the return of their jobs for more than two months.

Since the dismissed workers started their struggle, the Hotel Lotte has stopped forcing further retirements or recruiting young women as replacements.

However, the Hotel did not want to restore their jobs but tried to get out of the situation by paying compensatory money.

For two months time, the dismissed workers visited the Labor Ministry, the related government offices, newspaper companies, women's organizations, and various trade unions in order to get help. They also launched a protest demonstration in front of the Hotel Lotte and Lotte Department Store for two weeks.

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Demonstration in front of Lotte Hotel.
The dismussals shouted "retract new kind of early reirment" (1999. 6. 14)

In the demonstration, they sang a song of "Spring of Hometown" but with different words.

1. My beloved workplace is the Hotel Lotte Passing spring, summer, fall, and winter for ten years, devoting my youth, the price paid by me was unjust dismissal. I am deceived. Send me back to my workplace

2. Sometimes through rain, snow, or wind, I have cleaned and polished The workplace, full of my sweat and devotion, night and day The past ten years are like my own day How come I am dismissed because I am too old at forty-five?

It was not easy to fight the company with no desire to restore their jobs. The compensatory money proposed by the company was the equivalent of three months' salary. In the Local Labor Office, the dismissed workers negotiated with the company and concluded by accepting its proposal.

It was a bit disappointing that the struggle did not end with total victory. However it was meaningful that the over 45-year-old married women, who had no experience of campaigning, organized a group struggle.

They also succeeded in stopping the company's unjust dismissals. Of course the compensatory money was given to them through their struggle.

The dismissed workers have learned a lot through their struggle. They have been taught that women workers must unite for their rights.

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Korea Working Women's Network 1999