[vol.15] Feture 2_ Unemployment policy of IMF's administrative system era

Unemployment policy of IMF's administrative system era

Gum-Hee Hwang(Editorial staff of KWWAU)

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This article is written on the basis of the unemployment policy of IMF's control system era. We provide problems and suggestions to the IMF's unemployment policy. In addition, we present information regarding conditions of women's unemployment and possible countermeasures presented at the forum held on the 23rd of April, "Unemployment of women, find the soluton!" sponsored by Korean Women Associations United.

The countermeasures which the government is promoting to ameliorate rising unemployment are all short-term and inefficable. Therefore, those countermeasures are viewed negatively by society.

Since the unemployment policy largely fails to reach the needs of women workers, the situation is all the more serious. The unemployment policy is merely a means of getting a grip on the situation. Moreover, it is based on inaccurate information and is overly optimistic.

Since the government is not sufficiently aware of the reality of the situation, the government's policy is impractical. It is also based on a family-wage ideology, an anti-democratic decision-making process and an insufficient budget.

The government's countermeasures can be discussed in two ways. First, a lack of knowledge exists about the situation of unemployed women workers due to the patriarchical and male-centered sexist character of the unemployment policy. Second, the government's countermeasures are short-termed both in its planning and its enforcement.

• The patriarchal characteristic of the countermeasures.
  1. The policy is based on a conven- tional gendered division of labor

     The unemployment policy which is being promoted by the government is based on a gendered division of labor. Since the man is perceived as the sole family supporter and the woman is viewed as the homemaker, no remedies exist for women workers even though they are suffering from massive dismissals and from severe uncertainty regarding their futures.

     In order to prevent social instability and riots, the government is reducing the unemployment rate and aiming to stabilize the unemployment rate at 5%. To do this, the government is using women's labor as the safety valve.

     The Korea Labor Research Institute recently explained that in this current economic crisis unemployed workers who stop searching for work become part of the non-economic population. Hence, they serve as shock absorbers in the labor market.

     This ensures that the unemployment level does not increase too rapidly. These "disappointed workers" constitute around 40% of the non-economic population. In addition, most of the persons in this category are women. Without women workers in the labor market, the total unemployment level would increase more drastically. In the end the unemployment policy becomes a means of restricting women workers to the non-economic population.

  2. Male-centered countermeasures

     The employment trend of the last two quarters of 1997 shows that women are more adversely affected by the economic crisis. In this period, the total number of unemployed persons was 550,000.

     During the same period in 1996 there was a 33% increase. The unemployment level of men has increased by 20.8% whereas for women it has increased by 60.6%. This shows that the increase in the number of unemployed women is much higher than the number of unemployed men.

     However, the government's efforts to create jobs is focused on creating more job opportunities for men. In addition, unemployment insurance is also limited to men. The most enforced countermeasure proposed by the government is the allowance or the unemployment system; however, this only reaches a small minority of the total unemployed women worker population.

     Also, the unemployment countermeasures are based on the premise that there should be only one male family supporter in each family. However, this countermeasure model can exist only in countries like Germany, France and other countries where social security networks are fully equipped.

• Short-term and unreliable policy

  The biggest problem of the government's countermeasures is that the policy does not address the long run. Despite the need for countermeasures which prevent unjust dismissals and reduce the number of work hours, the government's policy is based on principles that promote the flexibility of the labor market.

  Hence, it fails to stop companies from continually contracting their workforces. In addition, because the unemployment policy has been in effect for less than a year, it is uncertain whether the government's policy can resolve the current unemployment situation, since this crisis is projected to to continue for the next three to four years.

  The government's unemployment countermeasures also lack sufficient financial resources and the outlook of financial resources seems thin. On March 26th, the total financial resources were set at 7 trillion 900 billion won.

  Among this, a general financial performance fee was included which amounted to 26 billion 600 million won, but it still only amounts to 3.3% of the total financial resources. In comparison to the 40 trillion won invested in organising illegal loans and the 10 trillion won allotted to rescue enterprises by the government, the financial resources for unemployment policies are very low. In addition, because the outlook of any future financial help is also low, it is questionable whether those unemployed 1,000,000 persons will be able to obtain any help at all.

  Also, the estimated resources allocated to help enterprises retrain employees and ease unemployment effects are meager. The estimated amount allocated to help ease unemployment effects is only 600 billion won out of 5 trillion 2 billion 100 million won, with the candidates reaching a mere 400,000. In order to help the unemployed, it is necessary for the government to create jobs. Currently, the government has promised to create about 150,000-200,000 jobs.

  However, many of the new jobs created by the government are low wage jobs with low living payments. They include cleaning the environment, tending green forests, recycling, organizing resources, and renumerating public facilities, which last about 2 to 8 months. In addition, the government's expenditure on the minimum costs of living for low wage earners is very low. Thus, their plan to offer stable jobs for the 120,000 unemployed is considered ineffective. New jobs for unemployed married women are even more bleak.

• Countermeasures to unemployment

  What is the most suitable countermeasure regarding the current economic crisis that we are facing? The political measures should give priority to a 'protection policy for the unemployed' and 'unemployment preventive measures' if they are to supplement the weaknesses of the government's unemployment policy and provide diverse policy measures with different views.

  1. Enforcement of preventive measures for unemployment and the expansion of the policy for protecting the unemployed

     Those who are in charge of formulating the policy should realize that it should be a policy which simultaneously protects the unemployed while preventing rising unemployment. Unemployment restraining policies which maintain the present state of employment should be enforced and at the same time protective measures for the unemployed must be expanded. In order to do this, the government must take strong actions to root out any unlawful and unfair dismissals.

     The government should also take strong action against the unfair dismissals of women workers, especially those which arise from sexual discrimination. Also, by initially shortening the work week to 40 hours per week and to 35 hours per week in the long run, the possibilities for creating new jobs and maintaining the employment rate should improve. The labor group has suggested that if real-working hours per year is reduced to 2000, we can expect 2,000,000 or more of jobs to be created by the year 2000.

     As for other countermeasures, the publicsector should expand social service facilities for maintaining employment and increasing employment opportunities. Also, active measures should be taken for maintaining the employment of women workers such as the formation of organizations fighting for equal employment rights (e.g. Equal Employment Opportunity Corporation, EEOC in US).

     In addition, national expenditures should support more opportunities for vacation and temporary work leaves both for women and men. And there should be countermeasures to help workers who work in a place of business where there are less than 5 workers and for workers who work temporarily (temporary, part-time, a day etc.) to make a living wage.

     It is also important not to leave out the expansion of funds for countermeasures for the unemployed (labor circle has made a request to the government's general account to secure 20 trillion cho won or more of their financial resources), the enforcement of effectual wage bond security fund or the introduction of an allowance aid funding system for the unemployed.

  2. Healing social illnesses brought about by the economic crisis

     Above all, a countermeasure scheme should attempt to solve related problems such as crimes, suicides, the increasing number of orphans, the separation and breakdown of families and other mental shocks.

     The word 'unemployment' connotes more than just 'it is tough making a living'. After the IMF control system was introduced, reports of various social illnesses appeared which reflect the realities of the economic crisis. The sudden increase in unemployment and in reports of illnesses have reached a serious level. In such times of economic crisis, an increase in unemployment makes female discrimination more open, more publicized and more blatant, which re-enforces the gendered division of labor. The feeling of loss due to losing one's job has increased incidents of sexual violence by men who assault their wives.

     Therefore, the government's unemployment policy should be an all-round countermeasure which embraces the maintenance and creation of employment, provides remedies and protective measures for the unemployed, and offers solutions to cure social illnesses.