[no.20]Working environment improvement campaign to find a balance between work and family

2011.10.12  No.20
	<Working environment improvement campaign to find a balance between work and family>
	This is the picture of today. The female employment activity rate in South Korea is the lowest among OECD, and its graph is curved like a capital 'M', which cannot be seen in any other country but South Korea and Japan. The M-curve indicates  that female workers tend to quit when they have a baby to take care of and do not begin to work again until the child hass sufficiently grown. The rate of female regular workers from ages 30 to 34 amounted to 57.9% last August, while more than two thirds of the entire female workforce are in temporary positions. The 30 to 34 age group comprises of the biggest portion of women regular workers among all other age groups, though it is nowhere near 69.1%, the rate of male regular worker at the same age. However, when women reach their forties,  the rate falls sharply to 33.8%. This is thought to be because they try once more  to look for employment,, but this time as a non-regular worker. more>>
	<"Raise the minimum wage from 4,320 won to 5,410 won." -- the Minimum Wage Raising Campaign by KWWA>
	Laborers, whose wage is always the lowest bidding price, Young workers, barely making ends meet by working part time, Service workers in convenience stores, gas stations and so on, whose hourly wage is determined by the minimum wage, The workers under a subcontract, whose wage is under the minimum wage. The 450 million low-paid workers who are suffering from the preposterous minimum wage all over the country. One would hardly be able to have a proper meal with the current hourly minimum wage, which is only one third of the average wage. As a result, South Korea is dishonored to be the first nation among the OECD in terms of the rate of low-paid workers and inequality in wages. It has turned out that 196 million workers are paid even less than the minimum wage last August; furthermore, 61.5% of them are female and only 5.7% are regular workers. Therefore, we can argue that the minimum wage issue directly related to the matter of temporary workers and women workers.more>>
	<"Celebrating the adoption of the Domestic Workers Protection Agreement from the 100th ILO general meeting" – the need for the South Korean government to ratify>
	“The Domestic Workers Protection Agreement,” which was considered as the last important issue of the international labor community, was passed by a majority at the 100th International Labor Organization general meeting on the 16th of June, with 396 votes in favor, 63 in abstention, and only 16 against. We at the Solidarity for Care Workers' Legal Protection are very glad to hear that the domestic workers protection agreement was taken up by the international community and especially that the South Korean government is for the agreement, taking seriously the 300,000 domestic workers' demand. Now is the time for the South Korean government to ratify. The 300,000 domestic workers have yearned for equal treatment as  respectable workers as well as basic benefits such as occupational health and safety insurance. They have been shunned from every kind of legal protection and social acknowledgement due to the prejudice that their labor is merely domestic and relevant only to women. Accordingly, domestic workers and civil labor organizations have been taking action for the amendment of the domestic law and ILO agreement since 2010.more>>
	<The Forum: “The Balance Between Work & Life, the Justifiable Right of People”>
	The forum, “The Balance Between Work & Life, the Justifiable Right of People,” was held by KWWA, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the revision of the Maternity Protection Act, on the 29th of June at Seoul Women's Plaza. There has been a need for a solution to the fact that it was bound to females and has generated other problems like the increase of caring responsibility. At the very beginning, the first speaker Kim Yeongok pointed out that a policy for a balance between work and life bound only to women has caused gender discrimination of labor and has strengthened the division of labor by gender. According to her, the solution is to map out a sustainable, long term plan, not bread and circuses policies. Her other claim was that in order to dissolve the divided labor structure by gender, we should consider the problem of child-care. She also suggested that commercialization of labor and an escape of caring responsibility from the family are required for women, and the exact opposite for men. She underlined the importance of a community-based economic activity and the imaginative power for it. Lastly, she added that we need a new working environment, a new a new standard for the quality of life, and a new way of living to fix the chronic problem of dehumanization at work.more>>