Labor unions reject stopgap measures proposed by GNP
Park Hee-tae, chairman of the ruling Grand National Party, right, passes lawmakers and officials from the Democratic Labor Party staging a sit-in against the revision of the non-regular workers’ law yesterday in the lobby of the National Assembly main conference hall. [NEWSIS]
The Grand National Party proposed yesterday that the current law governing non-regular workers be revised so that the scheduled July 1 implementation of a clause concerning their employment status will be delayed by a further two years.
The ruling party also proposed that a 1 trillion won ($779 million) budget be allocated next year to support companies that upgrade non-regular workers’ employment status to that of regular workers, said Cho Won-jin, who represents the GNP at the National Assembly’s Environment and Labor Committee.
Under the current law, which took effect on July 1, 2007, employers are required to offer non-regular workers regular employment after two years of employment.
Wednesday marks the two-year anniversary of the law’s implementation.
Temporary workers and day laborers are worried they might lose their jobs if employers are reluctant to upgrade their status.
If the current law is not revised, an estimated 1 million non-regular workers could be either offered a regular post or fired starting next month.
Similar proposals to delay the implementation of the clause were also put forward by the opposition parties.
The Democrats proposed a six-month delay while the alliance of two minority opposition groups proposed an 18-month delay to buy time to come up with alternate measures to prevent the possible layoffs.
The ruling and opposition parties and the nation’s two umbrella unions have negotiated a plan to revise the law, but the lawmakers and the unionists have not been able to hammer out an agreement on how to deal with the situation.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions held a joint press conference yesterday, demanding that the issue be tackled thoroughly.
Instead of delaying the implementation, non-regular workers who have worked in a position for more than two years should be provided with an upgraded employment status, the unionists argued.
They also said the law should be revised so that employers will refrain from hiring temporary workers to encourage better working conditions.
According to the unionists, Korea currently has 8.4 million non-regular workers.
While the government argues that up to 1 million will face layoffs, only about 32,000 non-regular workers will finish their two-year contracts every month, the unionists said, claiming that the situation has been exaggerated for political reasons.
The ruling and opposition parties and the two umbrella unions sat down for another round of negotiations yesterday afternoon, while the majority Grand Nationals made clear that the National Assembly will resume legislative activities on Monday no matter what happens.
“Starting Monday, we will have no reservation about convening the standing committees, deliberating bills and passing them,” said Ahn Sang-soo, GNP floor leader.
“The voting session is scheduled to open at 2 p.m. on Monday. If the ruling and opposition parties and the labor community hammer out a deal on the planned revision of the non-regular worker law today or tomorrow, we have to vote on it on Monday, so that is why we want to open the standing committee meetings,” he said.
Ahn also stressed that the legislature must vote on the media reform bills during this session.
“This is what the people want. It also serves economic recovery and job creation,” Ahn said, arguing that the legislation will create 20,000 new jobs in the media industry.
The Democratic Party, however, joined up with progressive opposition parties to stop the Grand Nationals. Standing together with the Democratic Labor, Creative Korea and New Jinbo Party in front of the National Assembly building, the Democrats vowed to stop the GNP’s planned passage of the media reform bill at all costs.
“We will not accept the Grand Nationals’ plan to use its majority power,” said Lee Gang-rae, the DP’s floor leader. “The four opposition parties will firmly unite to stop the media reform measures.”
In March, the Grand National and the Democratic parties’ leaders agreed to a 100-day cooling-off period before taking up controversial media reform measures.
At the time, the agreement avoided - or at least delayed - a potentially violent clash in the main chamber of the legislature.
By Ser Myo-ja [myoja@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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