On a sunny day, March 8th, the rally of leaving office at 3pm for resolving gender wage gap was held in the Gwanghwamoon Square.

 

 

 

 

 

There were many banners from feminist groups as well as trade unions. Before the rally started, we set up the alarm for 3pm. Korean female workers wage average is only 64% of that of male workers, which means that female workers work without pay after 3pm. This gender wage gap has been the biggest among the OECD countries for fifteen years. When the alarm went off, we all typed “Stop at 3 O’clock” on the search engines to make it #1 real-time search word that people can be aware of on the first page of their internet access and get interested. (Not sure if we did make it #1, though. J)

 

 

We had three main rallying cries;

1. Never ask if a woman is married, if a woman has a boyfriend, or if a woman has a childbirth plan! Hire women at least a half!

2. Uproot sexual violence in the workplace!

3. The Government should observe minimum wage rule!

 

 

The first speaker was a college student Park Hweewon from Korean Students Rally.

Never ask if a woman is married, if a woman has a boyfriend, or if a woman has a childbirth plan! Hire half and half!

Never ask our family plan! It’s none of your business!

Do not discriminate by gender in the hiring process! Self-inspect your sexism!

She shouted out loud as a college student who soon would be directly concerned with the hiring process.

 

 

 

 

The second speaker argued for the removal of sexual harassment in the workplace.

Park Jiyeon, a worker from Daegu, shared her experience of sexual harassment at work and of co-workers’ support and trade union’s solidarity which ended up expelling the perpetrator from work.

Yes, change is possible by #MeToo and #WithYou!

 

 

The chairperson of the Cooperative Council of Care Workers, Yoon Hyeyeon, gave the third speech. She pointed out that the Government had set the wage of personal assistants for the disabled, senior caregivers, baby caregivers, and other sorts of care workers lower than the minimum wage. It has caused damage to care workers and care service providers as well as to care receivers.

 

The Government should observe minimum wage rule!

Minimum wage 10,000 won should start from the Government!

 

 

Then, we sang the official song for Stop at 3 O’clock Rally and danced.

 

 

 

Equal labor but without pay after 3pm

Stop there

The biggest gender wage gap among the OECD countries

Can’t put up with this

Give me the money

Same wage gap for the fifteen years

It’s time to change

Let’s stop at 3 O’clock

 

 

 

It was fun to dance, but the lyrics exactly fit the depressing reality of the gender wage gap. Same wage gap for the fifteen years and the sexist labor/wage structure needs to be transformed!

 

We recited the declaration of The Second Rally of Leaving Office at 3pm.

 

 

 

 

 

[Declaration of Struggle]

2018 International Women’s Day Joint Action of Feminist and Labor Groups Stop at 3 O’clock Declaration

Stop at 3 O’clock, once again in 2018.

 

Listen to women’s voice! Women still have to stop at 3 O’clock this year.

 

Today last year on the International Women’s Day, female workers stopped working at 3pm and gathered in the square. While male workers earned 1,000,000 won, female workers earned 640,000 won only. Given the eight-hour labor a day, female workers worked virtually without pay after 3pm. Many women held the first Stop at 3 O’clock Rally against this reality last year.

 

Online and onsite participants argued that this gender wage gap was not only about the wage system but also the product of the unreasonable labor process that female workers had to be engaged in. For example, many female workers were not considered for promotion just because they were women. Many female workers experienced career breaks because women alone had to be responsible for childcare. Care work and service work, in which female workers dominate, had been undervalued. All these female-labor-related problems resulted in the average gender wage gap, which women could easily witness and experience. Gender wage gap attracted social attention last year. However, how much the female workers’ realities have changed since last year’s rally? Against the surprisingly firm irrationalities, women today, once again this year, left their offices at 3pm and are crying for change.

 

Never ask if a woman is married, if a woman has a boyfriend, or if a woman has a childbirth plan! Hire women at least a half!

Many women face sexism at work from the hiring process. Last year Korea Gas Safety Corporation failed seven female qualified job applicants, because the then president Park ordered “Never hire women.” Moreover, many women get private and sexist questions including if a woman is married, if a woman has a boyfriend, or if a woman has a childbirth plan. Being asked these questions in every job interview, women can realize that companies do not hire women just because they are women! Why is the hiring ratio not commensurate to the population ratio—half and half? This society presumes marriage and childbirth as all the women’s natural duty, and attributes the responsibility to give birth and care children only to women. Companies avoid hiring women for this reason. The society and companies should change.

 

#MeToo. Uproot sexual violence in the workplace!

Prevalent sexual violence in the workplace prevents women from continuing their career. Recent courageous wave of #MeToo has revealed sexual violence cases in the Prosecution Service, the Police Agency, the media world, the art world, and so on. It clearly shows to the whole society that sexual violence is not just an individual and unlucky event to a small number of women, but a prevalent phenomenon many working women have faced in their everyday workplaces. 

 

Sexual violence in the workplace directly menaces female workers’ right to live, but it continues under the connivance of male-centered organizational workplace culture. The courageous victim of the sexual harassment in Renault Samsung Motors was disadvantaged by exclusion from work and co-workers’ bullying. As Hanssem Corporation represents, companies deal with sexual violence incident in the workplace by criticizing the victim’s attitude, by threatening the victim to change the testimony, and by stigmatizing the victim as a gold digger or a false accuser or a revengeful woman who failed in love life. Companies do not try to resolve this prevalent problem but rather attack the victim in an organizational way. The courageous victims have to endure secondary damages. The male-centered organizational culture and companies’ problem-resolving system should be entirely transformed. Companies should not do another violence on victim with organizational schemes. Companies should take the responsibility! The Ministry of Employment and Labor should take the responsibility to inspect, manage, and punish the problematic companies!

 

The Government should observe minimum wage rule!

The minimum wage has fairly brought up in 2018 based on the Government’s resolution to raise the minimum wage to 10,000 won by the year 2020. The minimum wage issue is critical to female workers’ right to live, as a large portion of female workers are hired as temporary workers or low-paid workers. In reality, 63% of female workers are paid under the level of minimum wage. Thus, the increase and actual protection of the minimum wage will improve the quality of women’s lives and will help resolving the gender wage gap.

 

However, the reality of care workers and service workers, which are dominated by middle-aged women, still has a long way to go. The Government did not apply the minimum wage rule to their Social Service Worker Wage Index in 2018. It resulted from the general underestimation of women-dominating care work and from the State’s irresponsible attribution of social service to social service workers’ individual sacrifice. We should change this reality. The State should improve the poor labor condition and actual wage of social service workers.

 

We hereby point out this firm reality, which makes us leave the office at 3pm again on the International Women’s Day this year, and we urge three demands for change mentioned above.

 

 

2018 International Women’s Day The Second Rally of Leaving Office at 3pm

 

Joint Action of Feminist and Labor Groups Stop at 3 O’clock on the International Women’s Day

 

Korean Green Party

Korean Council of Trade Unions

사회변혁노동자당

People’s Solidarity for Social Progress

Women Labor Law Support Center

여성엄마민중당

Korea Women’s Trade Union

전국여성연대

Justice Party

Korean Women Workers Association

Korean Women’s Associations United

Women Link

Korean Students Rally

 

 

 

After the declaration, the participants marched down the Jongno street. Look at these determined faces!

 

 

 

 

Korea Women’s Trade Union had wonderful banners with great signs!

 

 

UP the minimum wage! OUT the gender wage gap! NO sexism!

 

 

 

 

We asked in advance the participants to bring some stuffs to make noisy sound during the march on the street so that people can be aware of us and the issue. Some brought a plastic bottle with pebbles inside or a small gong. Korean Women Workers Association brought whistles.

 

 

 

In the middle of the march, we organized small performances as well. We blew whistles and tore a banner with a sign of “sexual violence in the workplace” in front of the building of Kumho Asiana Group near Gwanghwamoon. We denounced the President of the corporation having called young female flight attendants into his room and harassed them.

 

 

 

Also, Korean Public Service and Transport Workers Union smashed a coffin symbolizing glass ceiling and gender wage gap with hammers. The rubber hammers could not easily break the strong coffin, which seemed to represent the firm glass ceiling of our society.

 

 

Activists and volunteers from regional branches of Korean Women Workers Association joined the rally from Ansan, Suwon, Incheon, and Puchon. Bright future of gender equal labor will arrive soon thanks to them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This year’s rally was in line with the #MeToo movement, a desperate disclosure and counterattack on the male-centered culture and sexual bullying in the workplace! Gender wage gap clearly exposes the sexist nature of capitalism.

 

 

 

The rally was finished in front of Seoul Regional Office of Employment and Labor in order to criticize the Ministry of Employment and Labor for not properly reacting to working women’s ceaseless #MeToo disclosure. Joint Representative of Korean Women Workers Association Bae Jinkyung pointed out the various sorts of sexism in labor relations in Korean society.

 

 

 

Seoul Women Workers Association and Women Labor Law Support Center took the examples, in which the Ministry of Employment and Labor has not thoroughly investigated and dealt with sexual harassment in the workplace but rather has done secondary violence on the victims.

 

 

The Ministry of Employment and Labor should wake up to uproot sexual harassment in the workplace!

Hire more labor investigators with gender equality consciousness!

We will not just stand by and do nothing anymore!

 

With shouting out loud, The Second Rally of Leaving Office at 3pm was over. Thank you very much for all the support!

 

 

Posted by KWWA
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