hankyoreh

Workers and representatives of Kaesong Industrial Complex tenant companies shout slogans calling for compensation from the government and the restarting of operations at the complex

Shin Yoon-soon sighed as he explained the grim situation facing employees at the recently closed Kaesong Industrial Complex. The SD Corporation Kaesong branch chief was chosen co-chairperson of a new council for the complex’s workers at its starting ceremony on the afternoon on the afternoon of Mar. 2 in the grand ballroom of the Korea Federation of SMEs (Kbiz) building in Seoul. Most of the companies took their worker’s resignations between Feb. 12 - two days after the announcement of the complex’s closure - and Feb. 29, Shin explained.

“If you combine the 1,000 employees staying at the Kaesong Industrial Complex’s 123 tenant companies and the 1,000 or so more doing Kaesong-related work at head offices in the South, around 80-90% of those 2,000 or so people have lost their jobs. That increases to over 5,000 lost jobs if you add in employees at those companies‘ partner businesses,” Shin said.

According to Shin, the locally stationed workers are struggling in the wake of the decision.

“Most of the people staying in Kaesong have been corporation heads and managers, mostly in their fifties, who were in charge of educating North Korean workers and offering technical guidance,” he said.

“It’s an expensive time of life, with their children in university or high school and needing tuition, so they’ve really been struggling,” he added. “It’s also tough to find a new job at that age, so a lot of them are very anxious.”

Some of the employees who lost their jobs have been suffering from depression, Shin added.

“It‘s tough to be the breadwinner for your family on the 43,000 won (US$35.20) per day in employment maintenance support the government is giving the companies’ workers while the businesses are closed,” he said.

“As the ones responsible for halting the complex‘s operations, the government providing the two years’ pay it has received would be one suitable way of compensating us for the damages we‘ve suffered.”

Jang Min-chang, head of the Kaesong-operating clothing manufacturer S&G and another ceremony attendee, voiced similar frustrations.

“We’re getting more and more evidence of how badly workers have struggled since being let go, yet the government hasn’t given anything in the way of measures for them,” Jang said.

“One employee who received a home loan while working at the complex recently had a renewal on it turned down because the bank found out that they’d lost their job. It’s a hopeless situation for them,” he added.

“There were also around three husband-and-wife couples both working at the complex, and this was a bolt from the blue for all of them.”

Park Yong-guk, local corporation head for the Kaesong clothing maker Green Textiles, joined the call for immediate government measures for workers.

“Most of the tenant companies are clothing manufacturers, and the majority are small businesses, so there’s nothing the companies can really do in terms of measures for their employees,” he explained.

As a way to help relieve the employment issue for South Korean workers, Park proposed extending production facility support measures announced in 2013 for manufacturers returning to South Korea after advancing overseas - a bid to support job creation at home - to Kaesong Complex tenant businesses as well.

“I asked the head of Kbiz to consider this plan, but the administration still hasn’t said a word about it,” he said.

One local employee at the complex who asked to remain anonymous voiced frustrations with the companies as well as the administration for their part in the workers’ woes.

“I had been working hard with a sense of pride in being on the vanguard of peaceful reunification. What did I do to deserve this kind of suffering?” the employee asked.

“When North Korea suddenly expelled all the local workers on Feb. 11, those workers left with just the clothes on their backs. They left all their personal effects behind because they wanted to make sure they took some of the companies‘ more valuable items,” the employee explained.

“I can sympathize with the difficulties the companies are having now, but I also feel betrayed at the way they so quickly fired the workers they shared all those good and bad times with.”

By Yoon Young-mi, senior staff writer

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