Although hopeful words like 'civil-elected government' or 'reformation' are making the rounds of the nation, it is realized that no difference is seen at all in the tiresome living of we laborers.
Last Mar 23 the alleviating measures on regulations of environment gave a hint of how deceptive is this so-called civil government promise. Under the veil of appealing to the people to 'share the pain', the government announced it would allow workers dispatching business. This will enslave workers and bring benefits only to those who utilize the dispatching system.
The workers dispatching business which has been prohibited by law has been functioning under the name of subcontracts or part time work. Far from being protected by law, the workers suffer from wage exploitation and over-time work. In ignorance of the reality, the government has done nothing but allow more extensive use of dispatched labor.
In addition, seeing that most of the workers dispatching business owners are retired military officers, it is reasonable to question whether the government hastily formulated the concerned law for the purpose of legalizing their illegal activities of them.
The question was not only that one. The illegal employment of workers makes the working conditions worse and adds weights to the matter of employment insecurity. Therefore, we can't accept the logic that legalization or the workers dispatching business wil1 restore our economy.
On the contrary the business will trample on the basic rights of workers. While looking into related cases we will now examine the reality and the problems or dispatched labor which is in the process of being legalized.
- The reality of dispatched workers working for facility maintenance
With the main duties such as maintenance, repair and maintenance of buildings, most facilities management consists of dispatched workers. In the beginning the business centered on gate guards and dispatched cleaning labor but now it is gradually extending into air conditioning or heating apparatus of building, computer system, facilities for disaster prevention, maintenance and repair of elevators, parking superintending, telephone operators and driving, etc.
At present 90% of workers for facilities maintenance are employed by about 700 workers dispatching companies. With poor working conditions, 1ack of concern both from society and their employers, the workers are suffering from twofold exploitation by the dispatchers themselves and the employers.
In comparison with regular workers in the same jobs, the dispatched workers receive far lower wages and can't invoke the three rights of labor. This brings them to a state where they literally have no right. Despite the fact that they make an employment contact with dispatched labour companies, they have to be under the direction and control of other companies for whom they work. Under such duplication of employment relationship, they are threatened by employment insecurity.
In the process of making an employment contract, workers have to sign the contract paper handed over by the workers dispatching company. In actual it is not a contract paper but a memorandum which says the worker is aware that the job he assumes is temporary and supervised work.
As the facilities maintenance job is classified as supervised and temporary work (according to labor standard 1aw provision 49, article 3) the workers dispatching companies can get unfair profits by assigning the workers to work continuously for 24 hours without approval of a labor committee and don't have to pay over-time working allowance, night time working allowance and on holiday-working allowance.
As a result of this, more than 90% of workers for facilities maintenance have been harassed with over-time work exceeding the standard working time prescribed by law although they are not engaged in supervised and temporary duties. In fact they lost their lawfu1 right to the standard working times related to length of work, night time work and holiday work. In the event that a worker makes a protest against such matters, his entrance to a company is to be rejected without any consideration.
The average working time per week of workers for facilities maintenance is excessive Over-time of 72-80 hours, in excess of the standard working time of 44 hours. However, in spite of such over-time work, a low wage of around 4 to 600000 won (about $500 to $750) is paid to these workers. Additionally since not only the wage level is low but also the working career is not recognized, there is no difference in wage between new comers and people of over 20 years' employment.
In addition workers dispatching companies absorb almost 50% of the workers' pay in the name or a management fee, running expenses and profits (about 7% of the workers' wage). So the monthly pay of an old woman who comes to work early in the morning and cleans a big building, is no more than 200,000 won($250)
Such a low wage causes workers to change their jobs frequently. Within 3 years almost the total staff has been changed. Due to that high ratio of job shifting a lot of workers leave with less than one year working time.
Accordingly workers dispatching companies can take bonus, retirement allowance and 1ong term allowance which the actual workers are suppose to receive. For example, H company took in money up to the amount of 400,000,OOO won ($500.000}during the one year of 1992.
Despite the fact that the workers dispatching companies' exploitation in the middle is acute, the companies are doing almost nothing. Almost no skill training courses are available. Each worker utilizes the skills they have learned at schools or institutes.
In addition the majority or working environments are harmful and dangerous so that workers are apt to suffer damage to eyesight, hearing, respiratory disease and pneumonia. Finger amputation and death from falls are frequent accidents but nothing has been done for the workers to protect them from inquiry or promote good health.
- The reality of women workers working on computer input
With the start of the 90's, the adjustment of industrial structure has proceeded rapidly and government agencies as well as many companies has propelled office automation with a view to rationalization and efficiency of management so that workers for computer input has increased at great speed. The majority of the workers are women because their duties are so simple that they just input information which has previously been in paper documentation before so that computers can read the information.
Until 1989 they had worked as regular employees but began to be converted to temporary. This has begun to be wide-spread since Maxtec shut down under a false plant closure. Taken away from their Jobs and facing the need to make s living, they have no choice but to be reemploy in temporary works such as computer work at home, part time work or dispatched labor, etc.
In the case of S company, a software company, there are 16 regular workers out of about 150 and the rest are composed of such temporary workers as computer work at home, farmed out labor or part time work in office etc, which shows out how seriously the matter or temporary works increases day by day.
Since workers for computer input are paid according to 100% result wage system, the company gives regular workers such simple duties as amendment of basic errors while allowing temporary workers to do relatively better-equipped and high-valued input.
Such simple work gives the regulars a feeling of ineffectualness. In actual fact this has been a company scheme to force a sealing down of 110 regular employees to 16 and consequently to emasculate the strength of the labor union.
Of various types of temporary works let's examine a subcontracted companies or professional workers dispatching companies through which we can 100k with more detail into the situation of farmed out workers who are to be dispatched to offices of business enterprises, government or public offices.
It is a reality that the farmed out computer input workers dispatched to an enterprise have to do such errands as xeroxing or preparing coffee to say nothing of the duty of computer input.
In the case of dispatching being done through a professional workers dispatching company, most of the companies make a contract with a worker individually on the phone, pay him or her on line and send the statement of wages to the company the worker is to work for.
Therefore, the majority of workers have no idea of the statement of their wages. The double structure between employment process and actual working causes workers to have no feeling of belonging either to the workers dispatching company or to the company they work for. Even worse, they are isolated and dispersed so that they do not even know who are their fellows.
Despite the fact that dispatched workers carry out the same amount of work for the same working time as that of regulars, they are treated in a discriminatory way in the matter or various allowances, holidays, retirement allowance and so on. The amount of their wage remains half the amount of regulars'.
Those who are doing simple input duties by using terminals are troubled with such VDT symptoms as impediment of eyesight, shou1der or side pains and mental stress. In spite or their suffering, in the case of software industries, the VDT symptoms are not recognized as an occupational disease.
What makes the situation still worse is that due to their state of temporary employment, they can't be covered by medical insurance. Since the absolute majority of workers in the feide are women, the ill effects on reproductive matters such as miscarriage, still birth, deformed baby or sterility caused by VDT symptoms in the field of software industries become more serious.
- The problems and union's Countermeasures or dispatched labor seen from permanent employees point of view.
The dispatched workers system called dispatchment of workers in official and financia1 works has proliferated rapidly in each industrial field since 1987. With the appearance of labor unions, it became impossible to manage employees in the usual way of managing workers. On the other hand, under the name of rationalization of management, the companies want to reduce personnel expenses and to manage personals in a flexible way in accordance with fluctuation of the economy.
For these reasons the on-going system is expected to be extended into the secondary financial agencies. Since the system is so widely prevalent that there are some offices with dispatched workers who equal the number of regulars, a variety of troubles have occurred in each industrial field.
With the increase of women beginning to have their own voice and increased activity in vitalization of labor unions in official and financial fields, the position of women has become relatively higher in comparison to that of women previously.
Accordingly the re1ationship between women and men workers has gradually become paralleled. However, since most or dispatched workers are women, men staff speak to them in a rude manner that they couldn't do to regular women workers and this increases a negative out look toward women in genera1.
Extending application or the law for sexual equality in the right to employment, employers have avoided recruiting women and prefer to get dispatched star so that regular women workers continue to decrease in number. Therefore, within working places, women have to face difficulties in enlarging their organizations or raising their united voices. and it also affects the degree or their participation in labor union activities.
The fact that regular workers are given simple boring tasks or these which cause disease such as computer terminals, has also adversely affected working consciousness, developing a group selfishness.
From the point of view of wages and welfare, there is a big difference between the regular and the dispatched so that the regular workers feel sorry when pay day comes, and the dispatched workers are relatively depressed. This drives the atmosphere of the whole working places into gloominess.
Apart from simple repetitive duties, employment of dispatched workers has had a tendency to be extended and take over the duties of regular workers. Naturally the organizing power of labor unions becomes weakened.
When workers took a collective action, dispatched workers continued to carry out duties of the regular workers on strike. Therefore, it is no wonder that the struggle power of unions has become weaker. Since the situation of dispatched workers is covered bylaw and the use or it allows employers to reduce regular staff and worsen working conditions, it is important for the labor unions to take steps to organize the treatment of dispatched workers and the man (woman) power dispatching business. We will now 100k into the aspects to be covered by labor union activity.
First or all, it is necessary to have dispatched workers become permanent since they not only do temporary duties but they also replace regular workers at their duties. Secondly, the matter of dispatched workers should be dealt with at the collective bargaining table or other negotiations, allowing for no discrimination between regulars and them.
Thirdly, for the purpose of rectifying the unfair treatment of dispatched workers and preparing measures to protect them, their entrance into the unions should be expedited. Fourthly, that all work places join together and develop a common front to oppose the proposed law for dispatched workers and root out the illegal worker dispatching companies is absolutely necessary.
The big difference between the dispatched workers and regulars starts with the separation of employers from users. Wage and working conditions of dispatched workers are decided by a contract made between owners or the worker dispatching companies and those of companies which use the dispatched labor.
In case of breaking the contract between the dispatching company and the company using the dispatched labor, the worker is suddenly out or work. In a such state with no rights at all, the dispatched workers suffer from extreme insecurity of employment.
Because this is made sexist language and suggest either saying: 'man-woman power' or just 'workers' dispatching business is an illegal work which violates the Labor Standard Law. In essence a third party invades the employment of other persons and takes out unjust profits. However, workers dispatching companies of our country cover their management expense and profit from workers' wages. The ratio of in-between exploitation is, astonishingly, equal to the amount that the workers receive.
Apart from the above bad influence, expansion or dispatched labor is directly utilized to make the labor movement powerless. That is under conditions which makes it too difficult to organize them, dispatched workers gradually replace the regulars, which weakens the existing organizational power of labor unions and leads to their collapse. Also the spread of dispatched labor leads to a vicious cycle or employment insecurity, weakening of labor organizing power and deterioration of working conditions.
In addition, the gradual spread of dispatched work gives rise to a weakening of the national economy. Even though the problem of low productivity and low quality is the responsibility or the business sector, it is true that weakening competitiveness in the world market and reduction of the domestic market can bring on an economy crisis. With a view to establishment of a society where we can al1 1ive cooperatively together, we ask the government for the f0110wing:
However, of course such demands to the government side will be realized by the unity and struggle of workers. Therefore, the solidarity or all workers should put forth a resolute objection to the formulation of a worker dispatching law which government and capitalists have recently been attempting to do.
This meeting became an opportunity to bring to light the reality of dispatched workers and to figure out a counterpane. Being together the various aspects resulting from this meeting, Let's do our best to develop effective countermeasures to h dispatched workers system.
