hankyoreh

By Jeon Jong-hwi, staff reporter

More than half of workers at GS, Hyundai Heavy Industries, and POSCO, three of the country’s ten largest chaebol, are irregular workers, employment data show.

Analysis of 211 affiliates at the top ten-ranked chaebol, which include Samsung, Hyundai Motor, and SK, showed 52.8% of the 58,587 workers at GS to be irregular. The data came from employment information about 2,942 companies announced on July 1 by the Ministry of Employment and Labor.

The 19,385 indirectly employed workers at GS Group amounted to 33.1% of the total workforce. Another 11.7% were short-term contract workers, indicating a generally low quality of employment at the group.

The ministry’s data were for permanent staff at companies with 300 or more employees, with a total of 16 GS affiliates represented. But the highest rate of indirect employment among the top ten chaebol was seen at Hyundai Heavy Industries, where the average for six affiliates was 61.2%. POSCO, which had 16 affiliates on the announcement list, had an indirect employment rate of 46.7%, with 52.2% of its workforce consisting of irregular workers.

The 211 affiliates from the top ten-ranked chaebol that were included on the list employ a total of 1,300,361 workers, with a 30.6% average rate of indirect employment (397,685 workers). The number was well above the 20.1% average for all 2,942 companies on the listing, as well as the 26.5% average for the 99 companies with permanent workforces of 5,000 or more employees.

Observers are predicting more intense pressure from critics who see the chaebol as largely responsible for the proliferation of poor quality jobs in South Korea.

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