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Jan. 3. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions’ service workers division has said that under the current system

By Ahn Kwan-ok, Gwangju correspondent

“Just how many pieces are they going to carve our contract hours into?”

Irregular workers at super-supermarket Homeplus are turning up the pressure as they call for an end to “0.5-hour contracts.”

Many workers handling sales, checkout, and distribution for the stores are hinting at the possibility of a general strike. They claim that the system of 7.5-hour daily work schedules forces them into a disadvantage in wages, benefits, and general working conditions.

Eleven of the country’s 106 Homeplus stores - the Joryeo store in Suncheon, the Yeongdeungpo store in Seoul, the Gamman and Centum stores in Busan, the Gajwa and Ganseok stores in Incheon, the East, Central, and South District stores in Ulsan, the East Daejeon store, and the North Suwon store - saw partial strikes from Jan. 1 to 5 to call for an end to the 0.5-hour system and the signing of a collective agreement. The remaining five of the 16 stores with Homeplus union chapters also protested the measures with rallies and one-person demonstrations.

“These are ordinary wives and mothers who feel like they have no choice to but to strike,” said Im Mi-young, who heads the union’s Suncheon chapter. “This ‘0.5-hour system’ exploits workers by carving their work into ten-minute pieces, and it needs to be stopped.”

The system sets working hours at 7.5 a day. The results for workers are poorer working conditions and shorter breaks. The store has claimed the contracts reduce personnel costs, but workers are often denied wages commensurate with the hours they worked, and they do not get the one-hour lunch break they would if they worked a full eight hours.

“The Labor Standards Act and Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act were developed around a standard eight-hour workday, so people who work less than eight hours are forced into a disadvantage in working conditions and break time,” said Kim Guk-hyeon, who heads the union’s public relations division.

“Because of employment concerns, many irregular workers feel they have no choice but to accept 0.5 contracts that leave them facing poorer working conditions,” Kim added.

The union has said it plans to hold a general strike on Jan. 9, with more than 1,000 members participating, if its demands for an end to system are not met. It also plans to stage protests in front of the retailers’ head office.

“The nature of retail jobs is that it takes time for workers to take over for each other, and there are very often orders to keep working even after official working hours are over,” the union noted.

“Now that the store is introducing 0.4-hour and 0.2-hour schemes that are even worse than the 0.5-hour system, we’ve got to take action to stop things from being changed for the worse,” it added.

Moon In-woong, director of the irregular workers’ center at the South Jeolla office of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, noted that many workers are not getting proper payment despite working more than eight hours at the stores.

“And because they only get 30 minutes for lunch, a lot of them are in the middle of eating when they get a text message and have to go running back to the store,” he said.

Homeplus said it was “approaching the negotiations sincerely” and had engaged in some 40 round of negotiations already.

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