In 2011 the Korean Women Workers Association (KWWA) launched the 'Laying up Many Pennies' campaign, with its 11 branch members. The 'Laying up Many Pennies' campaign aimed to help poor Indian women to sustain their livelihoods through supporting cows and goats.

To help poor Indian women, our members at the KWWA and its 11 branches had tried to save money for instant coffees and bus fares. We saved 3,000,000 won.

The Korea Hope Foundation where we donated 3,000,000 won, gave us a good news that they had distributed livestock to the total number of 20 households consisting of 5 households respectively, living in each of 4 villages including the lowest class, Dalit and other minorities, in the Dakili Region.

We hope to weave living and vivid hopes more than just money itself, even in other countries. We hope to spread the seeds of our hopes to the Indian women living in another world. We are also looking forward to the moment when we can send another hope, after saving hopeful pennies. We are very glad that we let you know this happy and warm message.

[Press Material] We are asking to 19th term National Assembly candidates:
What have you been preparing for women workers?
(131 candidates answered to 21 questions)

- Saenuri Party has the lowest rate of agreement

- A high number of candidates agree to maternity rights of irregular women workers

- Women's affirmative action comes in the last

We at the Korean Women Workers Association and its 11 branches and the Korean Women's Trade Union and its nationwide 10 branches received the total number of 131 replies from candidates for 19th term National Assembly, after sending a written policy inquiry consisting of 21 questions in the areas of jobs in the public sector, irregular women workers and employment discrimination against women.

I63 candidates from the Democratic United Party (DUP) (accounting for 48.1%), 25 candidates from the Unified Progressive Party (UPP) (comprising 19.4%) and 24 candidates from Saenuri Party (accounting for 18.6%) answered our inquiries.

Candidates showed the highest agreement on the maternity right of irregular women workers
Candidates had 95.4% of agreement to this issue. Most candidates seemed to consider maternity rights of irregular workers very serious. That is because one of the biggest problem in our society is low birth rate. No candidate was against this issue.

Women's jobs and the introduction of paternity leave come in joint second place
Candidates showed the second highest agreement on the issues of women's jobs and the introduction of paternity leave. Why the two issues are ranked joint second is that childcare became a hot potato in this society and there became higher social awareness of the protection of paternity right. In regard to women's jobs, there are other comments. Candidate Kang Ki-jung belonging to the DUP commented "220,000 jobs can be created in the areas of medical & health, silver health care and recuperation." Jung Ho-jun from the DUP viewed women's labor market rather smaller, compared to our view that the women's labor market can be increased 1.5 times higher than now.

Affirmative action comes in the last one
Candidates showed their lowest agreement on affirmative action for women and there were also a lot of disagreement on this issue. 75% agreed to this issue but 7 % disagreed and 12.5% made other comments about this issue, which was ranked the bottom. That is because of the possibility of reverse discrimination against men.

However, in our society, high ranking women public officers accounted for 7.4% working in the headquarters, and 4.9% at branches. In addition, only 1.3% of executives of 10 top companies were women. This shows women's marginality and under-representation in the society.

In the case of Norway, affirmative action for women excelled 40%, which broke the glass ceiling. In addition, the French parliament passed a law that women should comprise 40% of company executives. Many European countries such as Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Italy, Germany and Holland have already implemented women's affirmative action that women should comprise 40%, and similar laws are under positive consideration. Affirmative action for women is an employment equality strategy that many countries have adapted.

Other comments regarding this item are like this: Affirmative action for women should be implemented steadily (Jung Ho-jun, the DUP; Song Jin-sup, the Saenuri Party; Kim Man-kyoon, standing as an independent; and Min Hong-Chol, the DUP); and Lee Sung-hun (belonging to the Saenuri Party steered the middle course, saying "I agreed to the purpose of affirmative action that it guarantees the protection of women's social participation. However, I think it is necessary to consider public opinions carefully." Candidate Cha Young (the DUP) insisted that legal reform is necessary to increase cultural awareness rather than artificial and compulsory affirmative action, but she didn't explain anything about the details of the legal reform.

The second bottom one was to regularize irregular women workers' positions in the public sector. This issue gained 83.1% agreement. Why candidates showed a low agreement is that is related to budget problems. However, this issue is very crucial to women workers, because most of irregular workers are women. 61.8% of women were irregular workers, compared to 40.2% of all male workers (as of August 2011). The regularization of irregular women workers' positions in the public sector should be started rapidly to expand the effects to the private sector.

The second last one is that women workers can legally refuse working while being fully paid, when sexual harrassment occurs. The existing law doesn't regulate any detailed and active protection by company owners for victims. That's why many women workers usually quit their jobs as soon as sexual harassment takes place. However, this issue has not been socially aware yet, so it didn't seem to gain high consensus from candidates. However, Women workers' NGO have to continue raising this issue and it is necessary to protect the victims of sexual harassment.

Saenuri Party has the lowest rate of agreement according to party analysis
According to party analysis, only 7 candidates from the Saenuri Party agreed to all issues, accounting for 29.2%, and independent candidates came in the second last, accounting for 63.6% (7 persons), and DUP was ranked the third bottom one, accounting for 66.7% (42 persons). However, in the case of the UPP, 24 persons out of 25 answerers agreed to all the questions, which is clear comparison with the Saenuri Party (7 candidates out of 24 respondents agreed all questions). In addition, although New Jinbo Party was a very small group (5 persons), all of them agreed to all the issues.

66.4% candidates show all of their agreement
Out of 131 respondents, 87 people showed their agreement to all the questions, accounting for 66.4%.

Candidates show their different colors of opinions
Candidates for 19th term National Assembly sent their different opinions. Chun Ho-sun (UPP) showing his essay-style answers said "I will legalize the resume of equality without showing any sex, age and academic records." "It should be compulsory to guarantee 30% of women executives in all public sector and public companies," and "I will enact 'Discrimination Ending Act' and introduce the pregnancy leave after adding the reasons for pregnancy."

Lee No-keun (Saenuri Party), a man of forthright view answered to some questions, saying "I haven't thought over it," "I think I should study this issue."

A candidate tried to appeal to us. Cho Hyun-jye (DUP) sent a long letter, saying he agreed the issues basically, but he hasn't prepared for them yet. So he was not able to answer properly. He also promised to "make women workers' issues foremost policies if he was elected, after saying that he was not good enough because it was the first time to him.

Ahn Hong-jun (Saenuri party) and Lee Joo-young (Saenuri party) were classified as others, because the two candidates showed the colors of their clear opinions about almost all questions. They put a lot of additional comments. For example, Ahn Hong-jun showed his agreement in regard to <7. Regularizing all the irregular women workers in the public sector>, but he presumed that various approaches for obtaining budgets and social consensus are needing. Candidate Lee Joo-young also didn't make any promise, just saying that he would review comprehensively and implement steadily. They had served two and three terms. Meanwhile, Chon Jung-bae (DUP) and Lee Mi-kyung (DUP) who had served 4 terms showed their consensus to all the questions. Hong Jun-pyo (Saenuri Party) is tricky. He called us, to check what other candidates had answered, and delayed his answers and finally he didn't send his reply.

KWWA and KWTU will have been working hard to push the elected to keep their promises and create a happy society for women workers.

Appendix 1. The content of our questionnaire

1. Women's jobs in the care service sector (public sector)

1) Increasing decent women's jobs by 2 times higher, which is the average level of OECD countries (about 1 million jobs should be increased for 5 years);

2) The government is in charge of making care service jobs, facilities and provision system public, and providing all people the right to be cared;

3) the ensuring of job security and suitable wages (80% of average wages of workers) in order to make care service jobs sustainable;

4) The ILO Domestic Workers Convention should be ratified promptly;

5) Domestic helper should be excluded from the exemption clause. The government should recognize the right to work for in-home workers (the reforming of the Labor Standard Act); and,

6) In-home workers should be covered by employment insurance, and industrial accident insurance, and their social insurance should be supported.

2. Irregular women workers

7) Regularizing all the irregular women workers in the public sector;

8) The introduction of limiting the use of irregular workers (reforming the fixed term workers Act);

9) Decreasing the size of irregular women workers to 30%;

10) Encouraging irregular women workers to join social insurance and expanding supports for them (expanding all companies to cover the workers receiving 130% compared to the Minimum Wage);

11) Recognizing indirect employment in the mother company and having direct employment in the public sector;

12) Reforming labor related laws in order to recognize the right to work for specially employed workers (home study teacher and golf caddies); and

13) Covering part-time workers working less than 15 hours by the Labor Standard Act

3. Employment discrimination

14) Regulating the minimum wage to 50% of workers' average wage (Reforming the Minimum Wage Act);

15) Introducing the Affirmative Action for women (allocation of 30% to women in the public sector, 20% in the company and private sector);

16) Regularizing women's right to refuse working when sexual harassment takes place, and giving full payment to women workers during their refusal period;

17) Guaranteeing maternity leave and parental leave for irregular women workers;

18) Introducing paternity leave to activate male's child caring;

19) Increasing the wage ceiling for maternity leave and parental leave;

20) Providing public helper for parturient women, home care workers and childcare workers for single parents and two paycheck low wage couple; and,

21) Increasing national and public childcare center by 30%

Appendix 2. distribution of response by question (unit: %)

Comparisons of election pledges by political party : They show the real faces of their pledges

Lim Youn OK (Korean Women Workers Association) 

 
Women's work should be respected. This is a real face of the welfare society!

Everyday every political party tries to make general election pledges about job measures, irregular workers and welfare measures, insisting that they are the right party to upgrade the Korean society. However, they seldom focus on 'Women Workers' Issues' although women workers' issues are core and basic issues in this society and women workers are marginalized in this society: irregular women workers accounted for 61.8% of all irregular workers; low-wage women workers who receiving less than 1,200,000 won a month comprises 42.7% of all women workers; women account for 61.5% of those who are paid less than the legal minimum wage. As a result, the wage gap by gender is 38.9%, which means Korea has the worst wage gap by gender amongst OECD countries. These are the real faces of the Korean society. None can suspect that women workers' present situations is the awful fruit of discrimination and prejudices in the society.

Hence, the Korean politicians pay lip service to women workers' issues without establishing any measures. They don't have few measures to save the Korean society. Without demolishing the gender division of labor under which women are supposed to be responsible for house work and child care and men are breadwinners, shorter working hours and decent job creation will come at the end of their ropes. I believe women workers' issues should be well solved so that this is the first step toward the non-discriminatory warm welfare society.


Sensitiveness to women workers' issues: determinants of success or failure in solving labor and welfare issues and authenticities of politicians

Therefore, it is necessary for me to look at and evaluate women's labor related pledges by political party. Since women's labor related pledges is not socially focused, it was expected to find the real face of political parties. That's because people usually dressed up outwardly, but they don't take care of insides well. Women workers' issues can stand for our society's underwears. As we expected, there were big gaps of women's labor related pledges by political party.

I am sure that politicians' responsiveness to women workers' issues is an authentic determinant of success or failure in solving social polarization and poverty issues and their capabilities. I compared by political party, 9 policy tasks in three areas of irregular workers, balancing women's jobs and family matters and women's jobs. According to pledge levels and practicability I scored them using the marks such as ○, △, ×. ○ means very good, △ means okay, and × means poor. The results are shown in the following Table 1.

Table 1. Comparison of women's labor pledges by party

We, working women demands for the creation of a happy society : Making a MOU regarding women workers' issues for 19th general election
- On March 7, 2012, KWWA, KWTU and SWWA and Seoul branch of KWTU made a MOU regarding women workers' issues for 19th general election, with DUP and UPP.


On March 7, 2012 at 11am the KWWA and the KWTU made a MOU regarding women workers' pledges for the 19th general election with the DUP and the UPP. NanYoon Insoon, a member of supreme council (DUP) and Yoo Eui-sun, chairperson of women's committee (UPP) joined together and promised they would do their best to realize 21 policy tasks in the 3 policy areas.

"My wage is less than 1,000,000 won even though I work more than 10 years"

On that day, Park Gapsoon, a dispatched cleaning worker working at the Sogang University made a comment of dispatched women workers' reality. She said her wage was less than 1,000,000 won in spite of her 10 year career. She said she wanted to be a firm women worker, strongly demanding the regulation of the minimum wage at 50% of average monthly wages.


"I am put the bridle of a self employer not a worker although I have been working more than 10 years"

Kim Eun-sook, a 88CC gold caddy having fought against unfair dismissal for 4 years, shed her tears, saying that nothing can be done so far although 10 years have passed since the legislation of the protection for specially employed workers were discussed. She called for the legal reform in the 19th term National Assembly that specially employed workers should be protected as workers escaping from the bridle of self employers. Additionally, Lee Myungsun, a home care worker demanded that the Labor Standard Act should be reformed for in-house workers to have the right to work and join employment insurance.

Hwang Young-mi, president of the KWTU and Jeong Moon Ja, chairperson of the KWWA urged the two political parties to have mutual cooperation to fulfill 3ㆍ6ㆍ9 campaign (9 policy tasks of 6 task Acts in the 3 task areas) in the 19th term of the National Assembly, which is designed for working women to be really happy.

Finally, NanYoon Insoon, a member of supreme council of the DUP and Yoo Eui-sun, chairperson of women's committee of the UPP promised that they would work hard to realize today's political agreement, stating that discriminatory labor market and social polarization can't be tackled without addressing women workers' issue first. The MOU was finalized by the performance of picking 'the apples of hopes.'

Recently every political parties have announced measures for irregular workers' issues and job creation measures and countermeasures for stabilizing the livelihoods of the public, but the issues of women workers who are the most margalized group in the Korean society were not visualized.

Accordingly we at the KWWA and the KWTU aim to help every women to have economic power and get economically independent, demanding that the rights of working women should be upgraded to the average level of OECD countries. Based on the principles of women workers' issue joint development for creating the society of happy labor and welfare where 99% can be happy through the reinforcing of women workers' rights, we made the following 9 policy tasks and 6 enactment tasks in the 3 task areas. We also issued a policy task material, 'We, working women demand for the creation of a happy society!: women workers' policy tasks for 2012 general and presidential elections.'


Table 1. Realizing women workers' tasks through the 3.6.9 campaign

「Korean Care Workers NGO Network waged home care workers' agreement ratification campaign -2010 marked as the first year for home care workers' protection, on December 19, 2011 at 11:30 am in front of Financial Building at the Chonggye Plaza. In celebration of international home care workers' day on December 18, this campaign planned to push for the ratification of ILO home care workers' agreement.

Presently, ILO home care workers' agreement was ready for the ratification in two countries, IDWN, ITUC, and IUF carried on an international campaign for ratification with groups of the persons concerned, NGOs, and trade unions. For this, Korea held the campaign today.

In front of about 30 people gathered together, Seol Insook, vice president of FKTU, started the campaign for letting know people the purposes and progress reports of the campaign. Then, home care workers such as care assistants, house managers, and home-base childcare givers made a spot addresses. Yoon Youngsook, a house manager, childcare branch of National Cooperative of House Managers (NCHM) said, "Few days ago, a coworkers had to go to hospital because she broke her leg. Another coworkers received physical therapy because her back was hurt while she was moving around hugging a child. Evne though we had such difficulties, we have to go to hospital at their own costs and solve these problems by ourselves, I suffer from low self-esteem. I desperately hope that care workers can be legally protected as soon as possible.”

After that, participants in the campaign marched along the Chonggye stream. Although it is very cold, holding a pan in a hand and national flags in the other hand. Passerby also cheered us up.

After the street rally, Korean Care Workers NGO Network visited the Minister of Gender Equality and Family and handed in our opinion about ILO home care workers' agreement.

In order that home care workers do not work in isolated and unsecure employment environment and can protect their rights, we hope that many countries including Korea should ratify ILO home care workers' agreement.

On the past November 16, about our 80 activists and members from our 11 branches nationwide took part in 2011's Photo Expo for Exchanging Hopes at our Hall of Education.

The events are composed of three sessions: the 1st session was to send ‘piggy bank of Hopes’ to Indian poor women; the 2nd session to present cases for action regarding social economy; and 3rd session to hold a market for Exchanging Hopes entitled ‘the Joy of Sharing, Happy Smile.’

Over a year, activists and members from our 11 branches collected ‘piggy bank of Hopes’ worth 3 million Won to support livestocks for poor Indian women. With the money 10 Indian women can have a cow of Hope, because a cow cost about 300,000 Won. On that day, Maria Rhie, a standing director of Korea Hope Foundation expressed her thanks to our members and staff persons who raised the fund.

The 2nd session when cases for action regarding social economy was presented, was a good chance to share a very diversity of practical social economic activities which have been carried out nationwide so far, including community coin movement, credit union activities, local communities, and alternative job movements.

 

In the last session, local markets for Exchanging Hope were combined with the central market of Exchanging Hope. People were able to purchase EM products, alternative foods, various clothes, accessaries and others. Furthermore, our regional branches prepared each food for our dinner together to share our activities and had a wonderful time.

 

We at the KWWA and regional branches made a resolution to more various alternative activities in 2012.

After we had dinner with the clinic doctor, other nurses and pharmaceutical company staff, and then, we went to a singing room. Whenever we went to a singing room, the clinic doctor asked me to dance with him. - -;; I told him I'd like to go back home, but he forced me not to go and serve drinks to him. This happened so many times. Please tell me how to manage this situation, without my becoming a wet carpet in this situation? - -;; (full-time worker, in the health and social welfare sector, in the service industry) (on August 18, 2011)

On October 19, 2011, 'Ilonet' a job online community was officially opened with the mobile page, where workers are able to counsel their job related problems and difficulties with professionals using their nicknames.

Last August 17, Korean Women Workers Association (KWWA) and Youth Union temporarily opened the 'Ilonet', and started their official services after some more supplementations.

For the past two months, 777 netizens visited the temporary online job community, and about 100 people joined its membership. Presently, on the site, workers write down their complains and agonies including 'work late' culture, sexual harassment, political issues in the workplace.

Our site doesn't expose any personal information (this is also a serious issue in Koea), because people can join our job community site with their e-mail address. However, in cases of sexual harassment and counselling showing their particular jobs, writers may feel embarrassed and uncomfortable, we have recently changed the site system to that people can take consultation unformally without exposing their information. As we also opened our mobile page (http://ilonet.kr/m), smartphone users can also leave their real-time writings.

At noon, on October 19 when the 'Ilonet' was opened, we at the Youth Union and KWWA carried on a publicity to advertise the online community near the Kuro Digital Complex Subway station, and we also planned to carry out our active publicity until late October.

'Ilonet' was sponsored by Korea Foundation for Women, Korea Life Insurance Association, and Kyobo Insurance, and is run jointly by the KWWA and Youth Union. In addition, our specialists' group consisted of professional consultants of the 9 Hotlines for Equality, affiliates to the KWWA, and the labor counseling team and lawyers belonging to Youth Union. People can take consultations on their rights to work and get assistance for right redemption.

Shin He-jung, manager of the Youth Project Team, KWWA who planned 'Ilonet' said “Regular workers and part-timers all have their problems that they can't share with others. I hope our 'Ilonet' can be a momentum where people can easily talk and take consultation.”