NHRC Issues Rectification Recommendation to Minister of Education and Human Resources and the Kyonggi Province Superintendent of Education
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued a rectification recommendation to the Minister of Education and Human Resources and to the Kyonggi Province Superintendent of Education to stop wage discrimination against contingent dietitians. CHOI, Sang Rim (47, Korean Women’s Trade Union Chairperson) et. al. filed a joint petition on 15 May 2003, charging that “Contingent dietitians working at schools in Kyonggi Province are being discriminated against.”
The 43 co-signers of the petition worked as government-employed contract dietitians at schools in Kyonggi Province, and charged that they were being discriminated against because: (1) although they performed the same work as dietitians hired under the “food hygienist government employees” category, they received markedly lower wages because they were classified as “contingent and miscellaneous government employees,” (2) although they were hired under 1-year employment contracts, school vacation periods were not counted as work time and thus excluded in wage and annual allowance calculations, and (3) school vacation periods were excluded even in severance pay calculations.
The NHRC investigation found that only holders of dietitian credentials (set by Food Sanitation Act) could be appointed as contingent dietitians or food hygienists at schools as per article 7 of the School Meals Act and article 35 of the Food Sanitation Act and that the laws did not have differing qualifications for the two groups. While there was differing allotment of duties depending on the size of the school, the NHRC found that their basic job descriptions (as stipulated in article 5: clause 4 of the Enforcement Decree of the School Meals Act) were the same.
Despite having the same work duties, the dietitians hired under the “contingent and miscellaneous” classification of government employees were paid an annual salary of about 10,000,000 won per year as compared to 16,000,000 won per year for dietitians hired under the “food hygienist government employee” classification (a grade 9 new hire with no seniority); thus, the annual salary for contingent dietitians amounted to only 60% of that of a new hire in the other category. While the work conditions for the two groups were the same, the schools excluded school vacation periods from the contingent dietitians’ work contracts and from their severance pay calculations. Thus, the investigation confirmed that there was distinction in treatment.
The Kyonggi Province Superintendent of Education responded that although the food hygienist government employees—who took the civil service exam (to become government employees) after attaining dietitian credentials—and the “contingent and miscellaneous” dietitians hired by employment contract had the same work responsibilities, insofar as smoothly facilitating school meal planning and preparation, the two groups tackled those same tasks differently.
However, the Commission concluded that the two groups were not carrying out different work because: (1) laws defining work responsibilities for dietitians at each school did not differ between the two groups, and (2) in actual practice, there were cases where schools that employed food hygienists switched to employing contingent dietitians and vice versa depending on the school’s needs at the time.
Thus, the Commission found that the payment of markedly lower wages to contingent dietitians and the exclusion of school vacation periods from pay despite similar work conditions constituted discriminatory conduct violating contingent dietitians’ constitutionally-guaranteed right of equality, and the Commission issued a rectification recommendation to the Kyonggi Province Superintendent of Education to put a stop to such distinction in treatment.
Moreover, the Commission judged the phenomenon to extend beyond merely Kyonggi Province, but rather to cities and provinces throughout the country; thus, the NHRC issued a recommendation to the Minister of Education and Human Resources to put an end to such discrimination against contingent school dietitians in cities and provinces throughout Korea. –End.
