The 20th National Assembly should immediately establish the Special Act on Domestic Workers!

 Immediately ratify the ILO Convention on Domestic Workers!

 June 16, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. at the Gwanghwamun Square in front of the statue of the King Sejong, Association of Home Care Workers, Korea Domestic Workers Association, Korea YWCA held a press conference to mark the 5th International Domestic Workers Day.

 About 70 domestic workers attended the meeting to deliver the voices from the field of housekeeping, maternal work, childcare and the solidarity letter of the International Domestic Workers Federation with a performance of popping a gourd.

■ 2016 Statement on International Domestic Workers’ Day

 Since 2006, we three organizations working on domestic work have been carrying out activities to ensure labor rights for domestic workers. In April 2006, for the first time since liberation, a forum was held on the issue of informal care work, revealing the reality of domestic workers in the blind spot of legal protection. In July, Care Work Team was established to protect the rights of care workers. In 2010, 16 labor social civic groups gathered to initiate a legislative movement to protect domestic workers. In 2011, the ILO adopted a convention for protection of domestic workers, which was called ‘the last pending issue of international labor.’ Since then, domestic labor organizations and civil society organizations have long been demanding the application of labor laws and ratification of ILO conventions.

 As a result of these efforts, last year, the government drafted a special bill on the domestic work announcing a goal of proposing it within the year. Last year, however, the government unilaterally halted it without any consultation, saying that the Ministry of Employment and Labor should concentrate its efforts to promote labor reform.

 In the meantime, the working conditions of domestic workers have not changed a bit. Domestic workers have been excluded from legal protection for over 60 years due to a provision of the Labor Standards Act. They can not receive occupational health and safety insurance, health insurance or unemployment benefits. Even if they are unfairly dismissed or payment is delayed, no other legal means are available than civil litigation. There are no statistics available for our domestic workers. Only the total number of domestic workers is estimated. Nowadays, the number of middle-aged domestic workers is increasing in the field. No matter how long they work, for 5 years or 10 years, they can not benefit from national pension as well as retirement pay to prepare for old age. Our domestic workers who work without a single contract ask the government and the 20th National Assembly. Where can we find the policies for domestic workers?

 Celebrating the 5th International Domestic Workers Day, we will strengthen our solidarity. We want to write our history with our own hands.

 We urge for the right to enjoy the right to work and the stable working conditions guaranteed by Article 37 of the Constitution. We urge the government to ratify the ILO Convention on Domestic Workers, which ensures the labor rights to the domestic workers. We strongly urge everyone to recognize 300,000 domestic workers as worker.

 With this resolution, we demand the 20th National Assembly and the government, which were launched amid heavy expectations of the people, as follows.

 First, cooperate with domestic labor organizations to immediately establish the Special Act on Domestic Workers!

 Second, immediately ratify the ILO Convention on Domestic Workers!

 Third, immediately establish a mechanism for social dialogue to ensure the social rights of domestic workers!

 Fourth, establish a plan to expand care services and support non-profit service providers!

June 16, 2016

Association of Home Care Workers, Korea Domestic Workers Association,

Korea YWCA

Currently, the governmental committee is discussing the minimum wage to be applied in 2017. Users are requesting to apply different minimum wage depending on the industry. According to their demand, payment below minimum standard is allowed in 7 industries out of 21, including wholesale and retail, transport, accommodation, restaurant, real estate, business support, arts and sports, and other personal services.

 They claim that these industries are not able to pay for personnel expenses and the portion of short-time workers is bigger comparing to other industries. They also argue that most of workers in the 7 industries work for supplementary income, rather than making a living.

 However, we can find large corporations such as department stores, large marts, condominiums, hotels, large restaurants, entertainment bars, manpower supply business, and air transportation. In spite of the large scale of the businesses, they are employing irregular workers through indirect employment to lower the wages. Also, wage is not a primary factor for the ability to pay for small businesses. What needs to be addressed is increasing rents, fees of the franchise headquarters, unfair transactions of the subcontracting. Lowering the wage should not be a solution for financial restrictions.

 Among various reasons why there are many short-time workers, the biggest reason is that the users hire irregular workers to avoid employment of regular workers. The workers usually don’t get to choose the type of employment. Also, the wage is used to make a living, even if it is spent as supplementary income. All workers choose to work dreaming of a more relaxed life. Whether the money is spent on a cup of coffee or a meal, everything is connected to the worker’s life.

 But are the user’s representatives telling all the reasons? We doubt if they are hiding their real intentions.

 The Korea Women Workers' Association looked at the minimum wage workers in the industry through statistics of March 2016. The number of workers who belong to the minimum wage range (90-110% minimum wage) in our country is 1,846,000. These workers are immediately affected by the rise and fall of the minimum wage. On the other hand, the number of workers in the seven industries whose wage is demanded to be paid below current minimum wage is 1,158,000, taking up 62.7% of the total workers. In fact, low-wage workers are concentrated on seven industries. Adjusting the standard for the 7 sectors can cause lowering the wage of 62.7% of the workers in the minimum wage range.

 More surprisingly, the number of workers in the minimum wage range decreases to 1.56 million when we exclude sectors that user representatives have no direct interest such as health and social welfare services, public administration and social security administration, education service industry, agro-fishery, and employment in households. Among the 1.56 million workers, the proportion of workers in the 7 industries reaches 76.9%. Reducing the minimum wage for the 7 industries leads to lowering the minimum wage in general. This is what the user representatives are secretly aiming for.

 The consequences of reduced minimum wage will be even worse for women workers. The proportion of women who receive minimum wages is 64%. The high proportion of women among low-wage workers is caused by undervaluing the value of women's labor and abusing non-regular workers. Among women workers who are affected by the minimum wage, the proportion of female workers working in the seven industries is 61.8%. The proportion increases up to 79.9% if we exclude the sectors that users have no direct interest. If the minimum wage is differently applied, female workers will bear the burden of dual discrimination.

 Paying the minimum wage differently is part of a plan to create distrust between the workers. The intension of dividing workers into nano-sized particles for better control is behind this policy. On the 23rd, tomorrow, the Minimum Wage Committee will address this issue. If the tricks of the user’s representatives are accepted at the committee, they will face strong resistance of women workers.

<Scope of Minimum Wage Workers by Industry (Sorted in descending order)>

Unit: persons
Source: National Statistical Office economic activity census (March, 2016)

 June 8, 2016 at 11 a.m. In Gwanghwamun Square, workers for Social Service Vouchers gathered. Korea Caring Cooperative Council, Korean Women Workers Association held a press conference calling for the improvement of the treatment of Social Services Vouchers workers. At the press conference, they addressed the poor working conditions of Social Service Voucher workers.

 The Social Service Voucher Program is a welfare project provided by the government for those who need care such as persons with disabilities, patients and the elderly. The government subcontracts the private sector as a source agency and entrusts dispatch and management of workers. Most of the care workers are women.

 The amount of money the government provides to subcontracting private agencies by the hour is called fees. It includes retirement allowances, weekly benefits, and payment for annual leave, 4 major insurances, administrative expenses as well as hourly wages. The agencies must cover all the wages and operating costs within the fees. The problem is that the fees are too low. Fees for nursing home care, care for the elderly is 9,800 won and 9,000 won for caring of persons with disabilities. While nursing home care and care for the elderly can be paid by minimum wage, but the situation is worse for care workers for the persons with disabilities. There’s no room for operating cost and the agencies are in the red by the rate of 169 won per hour.

 Hye-yeon Yoon, chairperson of the Korea Caring Cooperative Council, said, "We can only work when we cand afford to eat and dress and sleep. The minimum wage must be guaranteed. The state is responsible for this.“

 But the Ministry of Health and Welfare has handed over all the responsibilities to the agencies. Chang In-Soon, an assistant for the persons with disabilities said, “I do not know how the fees are calculated.” She also shouted, “Why should our care workers have to work two or three jobs for a handful of one million won every month,” and “How much is the value of our work?”

 "I am a single parent with a children of 11th grade," said Baek Ok-yang, an elderly care voucher worker. She said, “I am not a volunteer but the person with responsibilities to feed my family.” According to her, the job is highly unstable because the elderly repeat entering and leaving the hospital and easily change their schedule. “This affects livelihood of the workers as they cannot be paid when there is no opportunity to work,” she added.

 There were also complaints against users who demanded excessive work. Services users even requested to change the work just because they prefer people without glasses or chubby body. Some asked the workers to make garlic pickles for their daughter and son-in-law and others asked for kimchi for their children. There are users who consider care workers as their maid.

 But the workers are bound to accept these unjust demands. If they refuse, the users can request replacement of the worker or even the agency. This was all caused by marketization of the government, which has been introduced in the name of providing quality services through competition. As the competition between private actors intensifies the users gain more control over the workers. Respect for the workers are found nowhere.

 The organizers of the conference raised the issue of Social Service Vouchers Program including undervaluation of care work, low fees, job instability, loss of public interest, lack of protection system for workers. Participants urged the government to take the responsibility as an ultimate boss and apologize for underpaid minimum wages as well as pay unpaid wages.

 Lastly, the performance of putting a blow to the punch ball was presented. The ball read, "minimum wage violation, the real boss is the government." One participant shouted, "I am the puppet boss and the government is the real president!" The real boss is the government. It is the responsibility of the government.

[Press Conference] We demand better treatment for Social Service Vouchers Workers

 The government is taking the lead in minimum wage violation!

 Since 2007, the government has been conducting support programs for persons with disabilities as one of the Social Service Voucher Programs. In 2016, the government pays 9,000 won per hour. Based on the minimum wage of KRW 6,030, KRW 9,169 per hour is required to be able to cover four social insurances, weekly holiday pay, annual leave pay, and severance pay. Due to the nature of the supporting program, there are workers who work for a long time more than 200 hours per month. When they work overtime, they must receive 13,754 won per hour. However the government has set a limit of 9,000 won per hour. Nevertheless, the government has consistently maintained the minimum line as 6,800 won without paying much attention. The government is leading the way in violating the minimum wage.

 For the Social Service Voucher Program, the government is only responsible to set and execute the budget, entrusting actual tasks to the private sector. Therefore, the government-funded support agencies have to either pay the minimum wage of less than 6,800 won or endure a huge deficit. With this kind of structure, it is impossible not only to provide sustainable quality service resulting in sacrifices of the assistant workers. As of 2015, there are 65,300 assistants for people with disabilities in the country. All of them are victims of the government's minimum wage violation.

 Currently, women work in the vast majority of care jobs. Most of workers in governmental Social Services Vouchers, such as elderly care and nursing home care, as well as assistance for people with disabilities are women. The fees for this program is also at the minimum wage level. The society’s poor perception on women's care work is reflected in the government's social service programs, which is taking the low wages of care workers for granted.

 We strongly protests the minimum wage violation for women care workers and demand the followings:

 First, the government must apologize for violating the minimum wage for personal assistants for the persons with disabilities and pay the unpaid wages immediately.

Second, the government must raise the fees of assistance for the persons with disabilities.

June 8, 2016

Korean Women Workers Association, Korea Care Cooperative Association Council