[vol.22] [Voices from the workplace] 2. Unjust dismissal in accordance with the law?

 

Voices from the workplace Unjust dismissal in accordance with the law? - Confronting unjust dismissal of contract based workers Gwi Hyang Jeon, a nurse in Eastern Red Cross Blood Bank I worked in the Eastern Red Cross Blood Bank for seven years as a part time nurse. On November 25, 7 part time nurses, who worked for four to seven years, and 8 married women blood takers received a dismissal notice all of sudden. We were forced to sign the resignation letter. In December, another 15 were dismissed with the reasons that they worked for more than five years and had bad records. In fact, the bank released the recruit advertizement before giving them a dismissal notice.   We were kicked out from our workplace and we wondered around to seek for a new job. We were very tired and did not know what to do. We came to visit the KWTU and the KWTU staff welcomed us like parents and cared for our problems. We were the women who never had any serious quarrel with others therefore, we worried so much about the struggle which we would carry out for restoring our labor rights. However we decided to implement our struggle getting help from the KWTU.   First we visited the staff in charge of our dismissal in order to inform them that we were dismissed without any legal base. Even though we were part time nurses, the employer could not dismiss without proper procedure because we worked more than two years and part time workers working for more than two years cannot be dismissed simply.   Then, we pointed out that the bad records in workloads did not have any reasonable base. The staff in charge of our dismissal answered that they did not have any legal problem in dismissing us. They shouted at us. We felt so bad and felt as if our dignity was insulted.   We already started our struggle. There was nothing to hide behind. We paid several protest visits to the bank. We even went to work in a way to struggle. We distributed our appeals and statements. We wrote letters to the newspapers. We launched picketing. Finally the bank accepted the injustice involved in sacking us. The bank guaranteed our return to the workplace and promised to pay our wages for the struggle period. At last we have returned to our workplace. It was February 2nd, 2000.   At the beginning, we only had our will to get through our situation. But we did not have any vision for the future. Owing to the staff and members of KWTU, we could keep up. When we were totally exhausted, we were encouraged, cared for, and supported. And we could harvest the so sweet fruits of our rights. ※ 12 of 14 dismissed nurses have returned to the workplace. Four of them left the bank due to the cool behaviors of other employees in the middle of February. The rest of them are still struggling for their wages which were supposed to be paid by the bank but not yet paid.     Kyoung Sook Kim, a returned part time nurse of the Eastern Red Cross Blood Bank