Special Forum Organized around Survey Results
On 18 March 2004, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) will hold a forum on the results of NHRC-sponsored research, the “Human Rights Situation of Irregular Workers Employed in the Public Sector.”
The research, conducted with the Korea Contingent Workers’ Center (project leader: KCWC Policy Director Young-sam Park) spanned 6 months, starting from July 2003, and aimed to document the following: (1) statistical information on the numbers of irregular workers, their wage levels, wage and income disparity levels, and the rate at which irregular workers are covered under social insurance programs, and (2) in-depth information gleaned from interviews with personnel officers at 40 public organs, with 48 trade unions and 346 irregular workers on form of employment, working hours, wages, and other work conditions, job descriptions and whether there were differences between job duties performed by irregular versus regular workers, whether irregular workers were covered by the 4 major social insurance programs, and whether they were recipients of various other kinds of social welfare and social protections.
The forum will include a panel discussion with commentators from the Ministry of Labor and both trade union national centers as well as other experts in the field. The major findings of the study to be reported at the forum are summarized below.
1.Scale of irregular work in the public sector
Analysis of the National Statistical Office “Labor Force Survey of the Economically Active Population” survey data reveals that as of August 2003, irregular employment in the public sector reached 550,000 men (24.8% of men employed in the public sector) and 970,000 women (53.0% of women employed in the public sector) with an additional 90,000 indirectly-employed public sector workers holding employment contracts with temp agencies and subcontractors, thereby totaling 1,610,000 irregular workers in the public sector.
Compared to levels of irregular workers in mining and manufacturing industries, workers employed in the public sector have a high probability of being employed as an irregular worker. In particular, among economically active women, women workers in the public sector have the highest probability of being employed contingently, and the national government shows the highest rate of employing public officials under different forms of employment according to gender, as well as other individual characteristics.
2.Growing poverty among irregular workers owing to worsened work conditions
Wage and income disparity (top 90/bottom 10) in the public sector (as calculated by hourly wage) has grown rapidly, amounting to 5 times in 2000 and 5.6 times in 2003. Even in national government the disparity reached 5.3 times. On another measure, when setting male regular workers’ wages and income as 100, then male irregular workers receive 52%, regular women workers 80%, and irregular women workers 46% of that 100; thus, showing a large earnings gap by form of employment. Over the past 3 years, the wage gap between regular and irregular workers worsened; in 2000, irregular workers earned 55.7% of the average total monthly wages that regular workers (male and female) earned, dropping in 2003 to only 50.4% of the regular workers’ monthly wages.
Further, 35.8% (1,440,000 persons) of the 4,030,000 workers employed in the public sector are low-wage workers according to OECD standards (less than 2/3 of the median regular, full-time wage), and irregular workers compose 72.9% of the low-waged (1,050,000 persons). The number of workers in national government earning less than the statutory minimum wage of 2,510 won per hour (as of September 2003) amounted to 30,000 persons (composing 3.3% of those receiving sub-minimum wage salaries in all sectors); thus, the national government, which ought to be showing an example, still is an area where the likelihood of being employed at sub-minimum wages is not that low.
3.Inequality in the structure of employment and worsened discrimination
Because irregular workers face strong discrimination in fringe benefits and welfare benefits, only 18.8% of irregular workers receive bonus payments whereas 98.0% of regular workers do, and only 13% to 24% of irregular workers in the public sector receive benefits such as severance pay, overtime pay and bonuses. Only 36% to 39% of irregular workers are enrolled in the national pension program and have health insurance, compared to an enrollment rate of 58% to 99% for regular workers.
4.Government Guidelines Created Greater Irregularization of Employment
The driving force behind such increased inequity among public sector workers is the government’s restructuring guidelines to cut costs and rationalize management. Through these guidelines, the public sector has: 1) downsized the numbers of technical officials (clerical staff) and low-skill irregular workers, 2) transformation of regular workforce to irregular by curbing or putting a freeze on hiring while hiring non-government professionals on irregular contracts, and 3) transferring job duties of regular employees to irregular employees. In the course of implementing these guidelines, mass layoffs were carried out, and the courts later ruled that the government had committed unfair labor practices.
Thus, the guidelines issued by the Office of Planning and Budget and the Ministry of Government and Home Affairs guidelines played a critical role in mass-producing irregular work within the public sector.
