[vol.2] Women Labor Leaders_ Visiting the Women's Division of the Ssangyong Labor Union

Visiting the Women's Division of the Ssangyong Labor Union This June marks the sixth year since the Gender Equality in Employment Law was enacted and the Ministry of Labor gave the order to businesses to carry out self-regulated inspections regarding the application of this law in the workplace. The contents of the law itself are barely sufficient to maintain Korea's integrity internationally, and the government, through its lax execution of the law, has not even once appropriately penalized any businesses for violating the law. Still, it is encouraging that the government is circulating a Gender Equality in Employment Law guidebook. Within the banking industry, in which concern over this law is increasing, there is a women's division of a labor union that has independently inspected cases of violation of this law, and has developed responses as a group. We decided to visit this model group, the Women's Division or the labor union at Ssangyong lnvestment Bond Company. Securing the full application of the Gender Equality in Employment Law For female employees who have experienced gender discrimination, the recent government inspection mandate regarding the Gender Equa1ity in Employment Law is of great signiHcance. Consequently, the Women's Division of the Ssangyong labor union produced pocketbooks and pamphlets to educate the female emp1oyees about the law. It also identified two demands on eliminating gender discrimination and presented it to the company. Its demands are as follows: First, it asserts that the company is in violation of Clause 6, which stipulates that the starting pay scale be the same for men and women with equal levels of education. However, in the case of high school graduates, men who have not completed their military service are given a 4 'gap'I1 'ho' status, while women, within the same pay level, are given a lower 4 'uI'/1 'ho' status. In the case of college graduates, men receive third level, 7 'ho' status; women a third Ieve1. 5 'ho' status. Secondly, the company violates Clause 6. 2. 1 of the law, which stipulates equal pay for work or equal worth. The company's starting pay scheme creates a gap between the fourth level 'gap' group, which earns W 622,200 a month, and the fourth leve1 'u1' group, which earns W522,900. This pay scheme is discriminatory because it divides employees into 'gap' and 'ul' groups simply on the basis of gender. The Women's Division argues that the scheme must be reorganized based on the fourth leve1 'gap' system so that women can receive the same starting pay scheme. In order to obtain the consensus of all employees for these demands, the Women's Division plans to carry out educational seminars regarding women's issues for both male and female employees. The union Women's Division and the successes of the Women Employees Association. The ability of the Women's Division to consolidate its organizational base and become active was due in part to the Women Employees Association. The labor dispute of 1990, in which the Association played the main role, was he1pful in this regard. In May 1990, Ssangyong. in its plan to expand business operations. formed a 'small accounts management team' consisting mainly of senior women employees in the fourth pay level, and after conducting a short four to five-day training on business management, turned over all operations to them. When business dropped, customers began to complain that a business run by female employees was unreliable. Without follow-up guidance from the company, most of the women employees were removed or made to rely on the help of male employees. A few months after this first incident the company created another 'banking products team' as a means of dealing with excess company personne1. Constructing teams of three to four female employees, each with over three consecutive years' experience in the company, Ssangyong planned to make these teams responsible for insurance sales. The women employees saw these new plans, similar to the first, as another company scheme to induce women employees to leave the company. Around the end of August, female employee representatives met with company officials and voiced their opposition to the new plans. In early September, they also held a general meeting to discuss the treatment of women in the 'small accounts management team' project. Angered by the issues raised in this discussion, the women formed a committee to formulate response measures. The committee organized a protest visit of the labor union to the company, met with company officials, and distributed public statements. It also sent letters to each labor union division stating, 'this problem affects only women employees now, but it is sure to extend to male employees in the future.' The division representatives responded by calling emergency meetings and demanded the retraction of the company plans. Finally, through the united strength of the female employees, the company's plans were completely repealed towards the end of October. It is the strength the female employees gained through this struggle that has in turn helped build up the labor union Women's Division to where it stands today. We anticipate further activity from the Women's Division in the future under the leadership of President Wui Kyung-hee.