hankyoreh

Thousands of unionized employees of the E-Land Group went on strike on July 9 in protest against the management’s move to lay off non-regular employees. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), a major umbrella labor union to which the E-Land union belongs, also joined the walkout, which is underway across the nation at more than 10 outlets held by the fashion and retail company, including Homever and New Core.

E-Land Group management calls the strike ‘‘illegal,’’ saying that it will not tolerate it. The police are also taking tough action, putting key union executives on their arrest list. Observers say some union executives who are on the arrest list are also participating in the strike and it is very likely that a physical clash could happen if the police go ahead with its plan to arrest them.

The labor unrest erupted just after the new non-regular worker protection laws took effect on July 1. The law requires companies to grant non-regular employees, who have worked for more than two years, regular worker status. Homever and New Core, retail arms of E-land Group, fired non-regular counter cashiers at the stores so as to outsource their jobs just before the law went into effect. According to the union for the Homever non-regular workers, non-regular workers would be paid an average of 790,000 won (US$ 860) a month, compared to 1.69 million won (US$ 1,842)that their counterpart of regular worker status would be paid.

The KCTU sees the ongoing labor dispute with the E-Land Group as an example of the challenges now facing non-regular workers in South Korea. The labor group said that it will raise the level of protest by boycotting all E-Land Group stores. ‘‘The massive layoff initiated by the E-Land Group represents challenges that 8.5 million South Korean non-regular workers are facing,’’ KCTU head Lee Sok-haeng said. ‘‘We will expand the strike and plan a large-scale boycott.’’

E-Land union workers walked off their jobs, calling for the return of laid-off, non-regular workers and an immediate end to the management’s move to outsource cashiers at 10 outlets in major cities including Seoul, Incheon and Ulsan. 17,000 unionists, including non-regular workers from E-Land, staged a sit-in calling for revocation of the laid-off of non-regular cashiers and outsource of their jobs at more than ten stores in Seoul, Incheon, Ulsan among others.

At the Homever store at Seoul World Cup Stadium, 600 unionists continued their strike for a ninth day, bringing operations at all 12 discount stores across the nation to a halt. Police have put six key labor union members on their arrest list.

The labor union claims that it is continuing its strike to protest the management’s decision to lay off non-regular workers and outsource cashiers ahead of the introduction of a labor bill intended purported to improve working conditions for the short-term contract-based workers.

In response to the union’s strike, the management said that ‘‘We did not illegally lay off the workers in advance, the contract with the workers simply expired.’’ An official from the group said that ‘‘the decisions were made by affiliates of the group in consideration of their own business efficiency under potential pressure that the costs for employees would be higher due to the non-regular worker-protection laws.

Even though the management and the employees have gotten tougher with each other following implementation of the law, the government does not seem to be doing anything to settle the labor dispute. Labor Minister Lee Sang-soo said on July 5 that E-Land Group’s push to outsource the cashiers was ‘‘an inconsiderate’’ decision. But the government stopped short of direct intervention in the dispute as there are no related regulations that it can invoke.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]