[Press Conference on the Occasion of the 105th International Women’s Day] “Female President Park Geun-hye has to recognize the reality of female workers”

[Press Conference on the Occasion of the 105th International Women’s Day]“Female President Park Geun-hye has to recognize the reality of female workers”

 

 

Tomorrow is the first International Women’s Day for the administration of Park Geun-hye who claims to be a president of women. 

In the time of former president Park Chung-hee who is the father of current president Park Geun-hye, women’s labor rights and human rights were heavily restricted. Moreover, the International Women’s day was not allowed to celebrate publicly. Current President Park may think that women’s living and working conditions have improved significantly as of 2013 when she is the head of state. As a president of women, she, however, has to recognize that the current working conditions for women in Korea are not much different from the working conditions for women in the US 105 years ago when the first International Women’s day was observed.  

Working conditions for women in Korea

Women’s labor force participation rate in Korea is only 49.7%, which is below the OECD’s average. On the other hand, Korea ranks first in gender wage gap, which is 38.9%. 61.8% of female workers are irregular workers, which is 1.5 times larger than that of male workers. Less than 40% of the female irregular workers are covered by unemployment insurance. Women make up 68% of independent contractors who are under the worst working conditions among irregular workers. Women also account for 61.5% of workers paid less than the legal minimum wage. 

Female workers of JEI have fought for labor union recognition for 1904 days as of March 8. Irregular workers of schools staged a strike, demanding unemployment insurance and a higher wage, but ended up receiving pink slips before the school starts, rather than getting converted to regular worker status.  

National agenda scaling back from election promises

The new administration announced national agenda ahead of its launch, but the female worker issue got the least attention while addressing problems of irregular workers, unemployment, and people’s livelihood.

President Park made campaign promises to raise the employment rate of women to 70% and to nurture 100,000 female talents. In her inaugural address, she pledged to make Korea a nation where bearing and raising children is truly considered a blessing. But her administration is such a disappointment from the beginning. Her initial promises were to make a society where women are treated equally as men and to allocate 30% of public officer positions to women. But only two women were appointed to work at presidential secretariat and cabinet respectively, which is fewer than the number of women the previous administration hired. This symbolizes the current situation.

Moreover, on February 27, the new administration unveiled its plan to promote a system to reduce working hours for female workers with children. It is worrisome beyond disappointing. Under the previous Lee Myung-bak’s administration, this approach did not help women balance work and family at all, and relegate female workers to part-time irregular workers. There has been no remedy for the previous administration’s mistakes.  

On the other hand, there is a sign that she may pull back on her pledges to build 30% more national and public day care centers and to promote a paternity leave system.

However, with a strong sense of solidarity and responsibility, we at Live Women Labor Action strive to hold her to her pledges. We urge Park to make progress in policies for female workers as the first female president.

Promises that should be kept

President Park has to keep her promises, converting irregular public workers into regular ones and providing 100% social insurance fee for irregular workers. We denounce the plan to reduce the support to 50% due to a limited budget, and demand that she should deliver on her promises.

Moreover, she pledged to expand the current system to provide irregular female workers with maternity and parental leave and to provide a one-month-long full-paid parental leave to men. The pledge is what female workers have continuously asked for to prevent women from having career discontinuance, so they should be fulfilled.

Recently, a retail giant, E-mart, and the National Assembly Secretariat announced to change the status of irregular workers to that of regular workers or indefinite contract workers. It shows the status of irregular workers can be converted to regular ones. The government needs to come up with concrete measures to add momentum to the change of the status.  

Furthermore, we at Live Women Labor Action, with the JEI branch of the after-school tutoring program industry union and the 88CC branch of Korean Women’s Trade Union, are committed to helping independent contractor gain recognition of their labor rights, which was not even on the list of Park’s campaign promises. To help women balance work and family, we also, with all the female workers, keep demanding on building 30% more national and public day care centers and improving an institutional framework to reduce extended working hours.

A better economy and society where bipolarization in the labor market is solved cannot be reached unless the issue of female workers who accounts for half of the population is solved. When the labor right of female workers is not seen as a problem of women and starts to be reinforced with macroeconomic and social policies, Korea will be a welfare state where 99% of people have good working conditions.

Last, to create a society where all women are recognized as workers, the Park’s administration has to focus on gender equality as one of key value while addressing problems of female irregular workers, career discontinuance, and gender wage gap.

 

- Our Demands-

One, Grant regular worker status to 200,000 female irregular workers in the public sector!
One, Fulfill the campaign promise to provide 100% social insurance fee for irregular workers!
One, Reduce gender wage gap to the OECD’s average!
One, Provide maternity and parental leave to female irregular workers and one-month-long full-paid paternity leave to male workers!
One, Recognize the labor right of independent contractors!
One, Change the practice of working long hours and build 30% more national and public day care centers!
One, Address the problems of JEI and 88CC unions where female workers fight for their rights! 

Participants of Live Women Labor Action Press Conference on the Occasion of the 105th International Women’s Day in 2013