[vol.21] [Voices from the workplace] Eight-year struggle against promotional discrimination

Voices from the Workplace 2.

Eight-year struggle against promotional
discrimination

Joeng Mee Hwang(Sec. Gen. of Seoul Energy Trade Union)

"Women are supposed to be obedient and calm or they will ruin the reputations of their parents!"

Counseling is committed to the Countermeasure Committee as a means to fight for the recognition of the human rights of women workers and to tackle the particular injustices suffered by Kyoung Hyon Kim.

"You don't live with senior family members, do you? How come you drink coffee from a paper cup? You do it because you don't want to wash cups. What do you think about your workplace? Do you think that you are at home now?" I refused to serve coffee because I was not at home but at work. As a result, my personal work score was the worst of all female workers.

No promotion for 15 years for female employees

In March, 1992, the Energy Industrial Complex Trade Union appealed to Seoul Local Labor Hall for the promotion of female employees, who had been overlooked for promotion for 15 years. At that time, the 32 female employees had never had a single promotion between them.

The Energy Industrial Complex rejected the accusation of sexual discrimination despite the fact that male workers were categorized as 7th A workers and female workers were categorized as 7th B. The trade union argued that thedifferent categories for male and female workers in the same department was indeed sex discrimination.

The Labor Ministry judged that merely allocating female employees as 7th B workers did not constitute a violation of the law but that excluding female employees from promotion was indeed against the Equal Employment Law. This judgement by the Ministry gave female employees the expectation of future promotion.

However the company did not end its practice of promotional discrimination. A year after the judgement, only one female employee had been promoted. However, the symbolic importance of this first female promotion was a seen as a cause for celebration at the trade union.

Company used subtle trick to avoid promotion of female staff

The happy time was very short for the female employees because the company tried to avoid promoting women using company regulations. In the company, workers in the technical service received higher wages and the company tried to move female employees to the technical service line.

Level of position	Energy Complex	Energy Complex	Energy Complex
6th A	7th A, 2years	6th B, one and half years	Choice to take an exam for the promotion to 6th
6th B	No 6th B	7th A, one and half years
7th A	7th B, 2years	7th B, 2years
7th B

However, most of the female employees wanted to remain as regular office workers rather than relocating to the technical department. They wanted to receive the same treatment as the male employees. None of them moved to the technical service line. Then, the company proposed promotion for the 7th group employees.

"Wow, the female employees in our company are so powerful that the company has proposed promotion!"

But, no way! The proposed promotions were in fact a further obstacle to real promotion. According to the proposal, all those who wished to be promoted had to take a "promotion test" to enter the 6th group. On April, 1995, the company approved the proposal without the agreement of the Trade Union.

The male workers in the Energy Industrial Complex must work two years before being promoted from 7th A to 6th B group. The company regulation allowed for male employees to be promoted to the 6th group after a statutory period of working.

The female employees demanded the same promotion opportunities as the male employees. However, the company suddenly forced all employees in the 7th group to take an exam for promotion to 6th A, not B.

We had to take an exam in order to be promoted to the 6th. Furthermore, the company violated its own regulation that male employees in the 6th B should be promoted to 6th A without any exam or test.

I was sure that the sudden implementation of the promotion exam was a violation of the Equal Employment Law, and we therefore appealed to the local Seoul Labor Hall and protested the company's decision.

However, we lost. The Labor Hall said, "The case cannot be considered a violation of the law as promotions cannot be given merely on account of a certain length of time worked." So, men were promoted without a test but women were forced to take an exam. This is not a violation of the law?

In addition to our problems the trade union began to tire of the case. I went to see the chairman of the union and asked for its consistent support. But the chairman regarded the case as a problem for only a few women workers and not as a problem for women workers across the board. I gave up my faith in the union.

So, I and Womenlink referred the board director of the company and the chief manager of the personal department to the Prosecution Office for the violation of the Equal Employment Law, the Labor Standard Law, and the Labor and Management Negotiation Law.

When I was called to testify for the investigation, I was so tense that I needed to go to the toilet. In the toilet I saw a ashtray.

I thought, "Oh, this is a good place. There are lots of women smokers and they even provide a ashtray for them..." Oh, God. I saw a few urinals.

It was the men's room. I was too tense to notice if it was the women's room or not. The Prosecution Office judged that our case was not illegal. I lost again.

Eight years, Endless fight

I, defeated by the company, was ordered to move to another branch office. There I was subject to more discrimination. In the branch office, I had to deal with customer complains and had to assist senior officers. I was made to work like a servant.

When I had a meeting with the CEO, I declared that I would not serve coffee or water any more. The officers were enraged and, owing to my refusal to serve coffee and water, my work score was the lowest among all the female employees.

Eight months after I was removed to the Inchon branch office. I can confirm that the chief manager of the personnel department lied. He said that female employees lacked the capacity to manage the work in the 6th group and that was why female workers could not be promoted. If anyone wanted a promotion, he said, she should take the promotion exam.

However, it was not true. When I left the branch office for Inchon, a manager took over my work and I took over the work of another manager when I moved to the Inchon branch office. On the day I moved to Inchon, I was very down. "Why must women suffer endless discrimination?"

Must I be a bad woman in order to live in this society? Due to the restructuring of the company, the complex has been divided into two private companies.

I have spent eight years fighting but the fight is not over. I will continue to fight, and I am preparing myself to do so. Because I can get back my rights and the rights of women workers only through struggle.

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Korea Working Women's Network 2000