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Employment Situation & Future Tasks For
Unorganized Women Workers




Jin Young Park
Research Officer of KWWAU



This is a summary of the report from the forum on the "Employment Situation and Future Tasks for Unorganized Women Workers" on July 15.

This research was planned in order to expose the reality of the irregular and unorganized women workers employed in poor workplaces which failed to be included in the previous statistics.

The main subjects of the research were those women workers employed in workplaces without unions and those who were not attached to a union though one existed in their workplace.

The research was conducted from May to June in seven areas - Seoul, Puchon, Ansan, North Cholla, Kwangju, Masan & Changwon, and Pusan - by KWWAs and promotional committees of the KWTU.

A total 1,692 questionnaires were collected. For the main analysis, 1,598 cases were used and the remaining 98 cases, in which the subjects were women in workplaces with a union, were partially used for comparison.

Low wages, long working hours, insecure employment, insufficient vacations, low enrollment rate in social insurance

According to the results of the research, the situation of unorganized women workers can be summarized in their low wages, long working hours, insecure employment, insufficient vacations, and low enrollment in social insurance. On average, they work 57 hours per week and receive W645,000 per month.

52.6% of the irregular women workers said that they opted for irregular work because they could not find regular jobs. However, regular workers in small workplaces were still suffering from unfair and unconditional dismissals.

Regarding the section on monthly leave, annual leave, and other vacations, a lot of unorganized women workers said no vacations existed or they did not take vacations even if they did exist.

44.7% of the respondents said monthly leave did exist, 38.0% said the same for annual leave, but less than 50% of respondents said they actually took vacations in the cases where vacations existed.

30.2% of respondents had menstrual leave, 20.6% of respondents had maternity leave, and only 8.9% had child-care leave.

In small workplaces, less than 10% of workers had menstrual leave, maternity leave, or child-care leave. Particularly in the case of the workers who did not have a written contract with the company, a very high portion of them said no vacations existed or were actually used.



The enrollment rate for social insurance

The enrollment rate for social insurance is very low. The rate of enrollment in medical insurance is 42.4%, in public pensions is 42.0%, and in unemployment insurance is 43.5%. Enrollment rates are less than half in all three areas.

Workers in smaller-sized workplaces and irregular workers have a lower rate of enrollment.

The most essential demands of the respondents were shorter working hours (22.7%) and actual use of vacations (21.9%). This shows the reality - they are working for a long time without vacations or are unable to take vacations even if vacations technically exist.

In the case of married women, they most desired obtaining assistance in maintaining both their jobs and their home responsibilities.

Hope to set up union - but commitment is a different story

81.2% of women workers agreed with the necessity of a union however, they displayed a very passive attitude towards joining the union. Only 49.1% affirmed that they would join a union if there was one and 36.0% of them said are suffering from unjust and unconditional dismissals. Therefore the present situation leaves the most helpless people out of legal protection.

Resolution to improve the situation of unorganized women workers

In order to improve the situation of these unorganized women workers:

First, it is necessary to achieve full application of the already existing laws.

At present, the application of the Labor Standard Law is supposed to have been expanded to workplaces with less than four workers, however, its main guarantees have not yet been applied in these areas.

According to the research, in smaller workplaces employees still suffer the bad working conditions of low wages, long working hours, and almost no welfare.

Furthermore, they that they had never thought of joining the union. This reflects the passive attitude of women workers towards the union and also illustrates the organizational problems encountered by existing unions.

Second, we should make more effort to strengthen the effectiveness of the existing laws. Unorganized women workers are working much longer than is manifested in the law and have no guarantee to the rights of vacations and social insurance.

In addition, employers are increasing their irregular bases of workers in order to avoid violating the labor laws which protect regular workers.

Workers themselves think that irregular workers have no rights to protection by law. However, the labor laws are supposed to be applicable for all workers.

In order to improve the situation, the administration should conduct stricter management and supervision and, at the same time, there should be more active and widespread education and policy promotion for employers in order to make them aware of labor laws and practical applications.

Third, we should work for increasing wages and shortening working hours. The women workers' situation of receiving low wages and long working hours was discovered in the 70s or 80s, but the same situation still exists today for unorganized women workers.

The following points should be accomplished: shorter working hours, the expansion of vacations, application of the minimum wage system across the board, an increase in the minimum wage, an end to irrational discrimination between different forms of employment, educational backgrounds, occupations, and the scale of workplace.

Fourth,there should be assistance for women attempting to maintain both work and home lives. To the question of what the most urgent necessity is, many married women workers said that they need help to maintain both lives in the workplace and at home.

Only 19.7% and 8.4% respectively affirmed that maternity leave and child-care leave were given and only 13.2% and 4.8% said that they could use both leaves.

The employers should change their distorted attitudes to women workers, the general administration of protective policies for women must be improved and applied more consistently, and the collective social responsibility for the expenses of maternity leave and child-care leave should be made clear.

Fifth, with the full facts in mind, we should develop a strategy for organizing women workers and active implementation should follow.

In addition, we should consider questions related to the need for a union and to join the union. The majority of women workers agree with the need for a union but not many of them are willing to join the union.

This of course shows the real level of women workers' consciousness at present. At the same time it shows that the existing unions have not really put enough effort into organizing these worker sectors.

Now, both national unions, their local units, the KWTU, and its local units should fulfill more active and practical strategies for unorganized women workers.





Korea Working Women's Network 1999
Posted by KWWA
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