ENFORCEMENT OF EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE

The new institution upon employment insurance has just enforced into operation since the end of July, 1995. It has diverse programmes of the Payment for the Unemployed, the Development Programme for Job Capacity, the Project upon Stability of Employment, etc.

In case of the payment for the unemployed, only the workers whose working place has more than 30 workers can be benefitted. In case of the development programme and stabilty project, the workers working at the place with more than 70 workers can be benefitted. It means that those who are recently employed at the age of over 60, part time workers, daily workers, seasonal or temporary workers, government servants, teachers of private schools, etc. are out of its category.



In regard with the new institution, leading women's organizations have pointed out that the new institution, in fact, excludes women workers of its benefits:

  1. Looking throughout the statistics, 4.2million women workers, which is 62.7% of total 6.7 million women workers, work at the place with less than 5 workers, 7.8% of them work with 5 - 10 workers, 5.7% of them work with 10-19 workers, and 7.9% of them work with 20 -50 workers.

    The statistics cannot show the exact percentage of the women workers who can be benefitted by the new institution. Approximately 76.2 - 84.1% of women workers are excluded from the benefits. In regard with the development programme and stability project of employment, about 84.1 - 89.4% of women workers are excluded. Moreover, the percentage of the benefit is less with consideration of part time and temporary workers.

    Only about 10% of women workers are able to be the benefiters.(According to the statistics made by Korea Women Development Institute of 1994; the percentage of part time workers is 8.4%, of temporary workers is 14.6%, and of daily workers is 10.3 of women workers in 1993)

  2. There is a serious gap of unemployment payment between men and women. The unemployment payment is composed of 'basic payment' and 'the payment for promoting employment' in the light of aiming towards stabilization of the unemployed's life and promotion for re employment.

    The basic payment is paid based upon the former payment under the fixed rate system. At present of 1993, women workers received 54.6% of men workers' payment. It means, the women workers receive much lower basic payment. The more crucial problem is that most women workers can hardly get the judgement of being un- employed and of economic activities.

    In order to be acknowledged as an unemployed worker ,which is a ticket for getting the unemployment payment, the unemployed worker should enroll at the job security organization right after losing her/his job, apply for finding a new job, and present to the managing department once for two weeks in order to prove that he/she is trying to get a job. The applicant should not refuse to attend to the job training programme, which is recommended by the maneging department, or to accept the recommended new job.

    They are for paying unemployment payment only to those who have sincere and active attitude for looking for a new job. The regulation states that those who quitted job for private reason cannot get the payment. The problem is that the judgement of if the worker loses job by oneself or forced by the company can be decided by the job security organization.

    In Korea there still exists that,in case of marriage, pregnancy, and childbirth, most women workers are recommended to quit the job and sometimes appointed to move to a new sector or new place where is very far a way from her living place. In this case, many of them give up clinging to her job. Therefore it is very hard to judge whether she just quit the job or is fired. Moreover the final judgement is in the hand of the chief of job security agency. It means the judgement can be made very personally and also depends upon the chief's understanding of women.

  3. One of the problems of the institution is that the Job Development Project excludes the working place with less than 70 workers and with more than 1,000 workers as well. For the place with more than 1,000 workers is supposed to implement the project based upon autonomy of the owner.

    The implementation is not a responsibility but recommended with various incentive payments. Since the management system and human control system of the enterprises have paid more efforts for borrowing skilled labour power and for scouting from outside rather than paying more efforts to develop internal labour force, it is hard to expect them to launch such projects actively.

    Besides 90% of women workers are already excluded from the project since the place with less than 70 workers are excluded. In other words, women are excluded from the chances of job training and development programme which could be the basic energies for adjusting to the change of in- industrial structure and changed development of technology. Therefore it is almost impossible to expect to be leading labour power for women, and it is expected that women workers exist as a finalized labour power.

  4. There also is a problem of employer-oriented for the Stability of Employment programme. The most crucial program for the women workers is the support system towards the children care facilities in their working places and the payment of nursing leave. According to the law on equal employment of men and women, the company with more than 300 women workers should have a childcare facility at the company.

    In case of running the facility, the employment insurance foundation finances 400,000won for a month for one teacher. The payment of nursing leave is a sort of counter-measure for the company which gives 30 days of maternity leave and continues to employ those who took the maternity leave more than 30days from the end of the maternity leave.

    The counter- measure amount is won 120,000 for medium and small companies and won 80,000 for a big companies per month. The promotion of this system is in order to prompt companies to employ the married women and to encourage companies to run the company child care centers and to exercise more maternity leaves. However, we question if the prompt can bring with expected effect.

    Regrading to the setting up the company children care facility and maternity leave system, there are regulations for them but, there is no penal provisions. Everything is under the hand of the company in fact. Particularly in case of the maternity leave, the maternity leave payment is not mentioned in the law but, the management of equal employment of men and women regulation only stated "The company has not responsibility of paying wages during the maternity leave but should follow the labour collective agreement and employment regulation(Article 11, clause 4)".

    Therefore there is no way to panel the company if it does not pay for the maternity leave. In the Employment insurance law, there is no structural function for the guarantee of women workers' income. Even though there is subsidy for the maternity leave, it is a counter- measure money for the company which all



    More basial problem is that the Project upon Stability of Employment excludes the small size companies as well as others. Therefore most women workers are excluded from the training programs for the technical improvement and job training for self development. It results that women workers are still beyond promotion and left behind as marginalities work force and unstable employees.

Posted by KWWA
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