NHRCK(Chairperson Hyun Byung Chul) has denied the September 26th request for emergency remedy to the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTEWU) because the request has not met the requirements in the National Human Rights Commission Act; however, it expresses its concern on the fact that the current situation in which KTEWU is soon to receive notification on its status as an outsider union may go against the recommendation decided last September, 2010.
In September 23rd, 2013, Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) has made a notification that it will not regard KTEWU as a labor union under the Labor Union and Labor Relations Coordination Act unless KTEWU revises Article 5 of additional provision of its code by October 23rd in accordance to Article 9(2) of the Labor Union and Labor Relations Coordination Act. KTEWU denied to do so after a voting procedure was taken for 3 days since October 16th.
However, the legislation referred to by MOEL to justify its request for revision is an institution that our Commission has recommended for deletion due to its latent capacity to violate human rights. Our Commission has recommended in a September 30th 2010 decision that this legislation be deleted due to the concern that it may violate freedom of association based on excessive state intervention in determining status of union members. It has been decided that it violates freedom of association and right to organize, because it violates the principle of proportionality by denying outright the status of labor unions due to the status of its members, even though a weaker form of restrictive measures could have been taken.
Our government has pledged that it would ensure freedom of association of teachers and public officials and labor union activities as it joined the OECD in 1996. Accordingly, the Commission is concerned that this pledge to the international community may be broken if MOEL insists on its stance to repeal the status of KTEWU because minimal number of its members are dismissed teachers. The Commission hopes that the recommendation would be implemented even though MOEL has once rejected our proposal.
