hankyoreh

Sept. 21.

Following the Ministry of Labor’s refusal to acknowledge the Korean Government Employees’ Union (KGEU) as a legal labor union, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security’s (MOPAS) decision to amend regulations for government employees to forbid any political activity. This would prohibit government employees from engaging in any acts that are critical of or oppose government policy, and ensure that deduction of labor union dues from pay is only be possible through written consent from the individual.

MOPAS announced Tuesday that government employees are going to be notified from Oct. 21 through Nov. 10. of a new amendment to regulations regarding service and compensation for state and local government employees. According to the amendment, government employees and government employee groups would be prohibited from advocating or opposing specific government policies and from interfering with decisions on and execution of policy by state organizations. In addition, government employees would be forbidden to wear vests, headbands or armbands bearing political slogans, ribbons or stickers during working hours. With regard to the deduction of union member dues, employees would only be able to have dues deducted by giving written consent once annually.

If the amendment is enacted, government employees and the government employee union would be prohibited from engaging in issuing public statements, endorsing petitions, participating in protests or assemblies, and advocating for the ideas of specific political parties. MOPAS explained, “Ever since government employees’ union issued public statements opposing government policy in daily newspapers and employees have been wearing vests with political slogans on them during working hours, employees have been in violation of the measure that requires the political neutrality of government employees.” MOPAS added that is adopt the new amendment in response to the union’s decision to join the umbrella of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).

The Labor Ministry also declared Tuesday that it would not recognize the KGEU as a legal labor union because it had not followed an order to exclude dismissed workers from participating in the union. According to the ministry, an examination of the written resignations and other documents submitted by the KGEU indicates that four of the six leaders continued to engage in union activity after tendering their resignations. The ministry had sent an order demanding the removal of these members from the union on Sept. 18. In effect, the KGEU has lost its status as a legal labor union two years after founding on Oct. 2007 based on the Labor Ministry’s decision.

Following the Labor Ministry’s announcement that it could not view the KGEU as a lawful union, MOPAS decided to adopt measures that forbid the deduction of union and aid association dues from workers’ pay, halted collective bargaining with illegal government employee groups, terminated the enforcement obligation on existing collective agreements, restored full-time KGEU members to their regular duties, and closed the union’s office and took down the name plate on the door. The ministry’s decision to take these measures in light of the fact that the integrated government employees’ union will launch sometime in December appears to indicate a strategy for denouncing the new union as illegal. The KGEU and the Korean Democracy Government Employees’ Union have effectively ceased all activity prior to the inauguration of the integrated union. “If dismissed employees continue to be active in the new integrated union, we may take issue with the union’s attempt to submit documents and register as a legal entity,” said Jeon Woon-bae, head of the Labor-Management Cooperation Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Labor.

In response, KGEU President Son Young-tae said, “The people who are being classified as ‘dismissed employees’ were fired after working on behalf of the government employees’ union, so they should be given livelihood subsidies or something.” Son also said the former union leaders who have been dismissed will return to work as full-time employees in the union, which he said presents no legal issues that he can see.

Son added, “Even if the Lee Myung-bak administration tries to suppress us when, for example, we attend the Nov. 8 KCTU workers’ rally, we will not back down.”

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