[Comment] The Stance on a So-called ‘Extra Point System for Moms’

[Comment] The Stance on a So-called ‘Extra Point System for Moms’

Does the ruling Saenuri Party think giving extra points is an answer? We oppose an extra point system that does not reflect the reality of job-seeking moms.

On April 15, the subcommittee on Environment and Labor Committee of the National Assembly deliberated a revised Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act proposed by lawmaker Shin Eui-jin of the Sarnuri Party. According to her proposal, extra points will be given to job-seeking moms who have career discontinuance due to pregnancy, childbirth, or childcare.

The first and biggest problem of the proposal is that it does not reflect the reality of female workers. Female workers are under pressure to quit when they get married or pregnant. Also, in reality, the system to promote work and family balance is of no avail. Too often working moms get unfair dismissal and suffer from disadvantages in employment just because they are ‘moms.’ What we need here first is not an approach that favors moms, but a society where the current Labor Standard Law and the Equal Employment Opportunity law that prohibits unfair dismissal and discrimination are observed. It is absurd to hire female workers with extra points after kicking them out with discrimination and unfair dismissal.

Second problem is that the extra point system for moms is confined to only a small portion of working moms. Most women with a career discontinuance take low-paying and precarious jobs that provide poor working conditions, while only a few working moms apply for employment support institutions. The approach does not consider the real labor market of women with career discontinuance.

Last, the system may give rise to another discrimination. There is no reasonable explanation why workers who have career discontinuance but not qualified for extra points, like female workers who left the job for reasons other than pregnancy, childbirth, or childcare, and male workers with career discontinuance due to childcare, should be considered secondary in the labor market. There is no reason to discriminate against male workers with childcare experience only because they did not give birth to a baby.

It is concerning that the approach is proposed not as a solution to eliminate the discrimination but as a stopgap that gives away extra points like dispensation. What is needed is a universal approach that can end the discrimination, not a limited system that favors one group and discriminates against another.

The Environment and Labor Committee of the National Assembly announced that the extra point system for job-seeking moms needed to be carefully examined. The committee has to go beyond just expressing its concern and come up with fundamental measures to address disadvantages that female workers may have in employment due to pregnancy, childbirth, or childcare. We oppose the extra point system that does not understand the real labor market of working moms.

 

April 17, 2013

Korean Women Workers Association/ Korea Women's Associations United/ Korean Women Link