hankyoreh

Park Su-keun

The Economic, Social and Labor Council (ESLC), a presidential advisory body, announced a public interest committee members’ plan on the morning of Nov. 20 including a recommendation to recognize labor union membership and activities for dismissed workers and unemployed persons in order to ratify core International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions.

If provisions barring union membership to dismissed workers and unemployed persons are abolished as recommended, the result may lead toward a solution on the issue of the Korean Teachers’ and Education Workers’ Union (KTU) legal non-recognition.

The ESLC’s committee to improve the system and practices in labor-management relations includes experts and other public interest members not representing the labor community, management, or the government.

As a first step, the public interest members’ group presented a list of legislative tasks predicated on the government and National Assembly “quickly pursuing an amendment of the law for the ratification of two of the ILO core conventions, namely No. 87 on Freedom of Association and No. 98 on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining.”

Agreeing on the need to guarantee the right to labor union activity to dismissed government employees and teachers, the plan may be poised to offer a way toward resolving the issue of KTU’s non-legally recognized status. Article 2 of the Act on Establishment and Operation of Trade Unions for Teachers, which denies union member eligibility to dismissed workers, served as a basis for the Park Geun-hye administration’s Oct. 2013 decision to notify KTU that it was no longer a legally recognized union.

The ILO’s Committee on Freedom of Association has repeatedly recommended that the article be abolished. After a new administration was elected, the KTU look forward to it exercising its authority to overturn the notification, but the Moon Jae-in administration has balked. The issue of KTU’s non-legal status could end up resolved if the public interest committee members’ plan leads to an amendment of the relevant article.

The public interest committee members also said the union establishment should be revised to fall “more in line with the original aim of ensuring union autonomy and democracy.” Article 9-2 of the Trade Union Act’s enforcement degree enables the “returning” of trade union reports of establishment – a system that has been criticized for enabling administrative agencies to unilaterally notify unions of their derecognition. The public interest committee members’ plan recommended that the provision in question be abolished. A change to the operation of a nominal “reporting system” as a de facto permit system is expected to lead to increased rights to union activity.

Other areas with room for improvement in connection with the provision include guarantees on freedom of association for home-study instructors, delivery drivers, and other workers engaged in “special employment.” Despite essentially acting as workers, workers in the special employment category are legally regarded as independent contractors, thereby preventing them from establishing unions.

The National Delivery Alliance Union saw its report of establishment returned five times by the Ministry of Employment and Labor before finally receiving a report certification last year. Even after it acquired legally protected union status, delivery companies have filed an administrative lawsuit claiming it cannot be recognized.

The new plan is significant in having been drafted by third-party members of the committee besides representatives of labor, management, and the government. Presented by labor experts rather than direct stakeholders, it serves as a benchmark for the discussion to come on ratification of core conventions.

“The agreement was unanimously reached by all of the public interest committee members nominated by the labor and management sides,” noted labor-management relations improvement committee chair Park Su-geun, who called the plan “significant in terms of having established a broad-ranging consensus among experts.”

But while the plan has been submitted, another task remains with neither the labor nor management sides having yet reached an agreement.

“The management community has demanded discussions including permissions on substitute workers in cases of strikes not directly related to the core conventions, along with an extension to the validity period for collective agreements,” explained Park.

The demand to allow hiring of substitute workers during strikes is the focus of some controversy, as it could lead to restrictions on union’s striking rights. It is expected to be a major issue in follow-up labor-management discussions through January of next year.

By Lee Ji-hae, staff reporter

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