hankyoreh

By Um Ji-won and Choi Yu-bin, staff reporters

A South Korean worker identified by his surname Kang, 57, who works for the US Armed Forces in Korea, was originally assigned chauffeur duties. In reality, he does whatever is asked of him. One day he is put to work cleaning out storage facilities, and the next, he is lugging bags around. Some days he fills sacks with sand for the entire day. “I’ve been working like a slave,” Kang said.

Twenty years ago, he was hired as a waiter in a restaurant on the Army Base. But then, 10 years ago, the army unilaterally reassigned him as a chauffeur, and told him he could take it or leave it. Last August, he got another unilateral notification that his hours would be reduced to 20 hours a week from the original 40. Accordingly, he would lose half of his earnings.

“What else can I do? I’m too old to find another job. They [USFK] always say that we are making a living thanks to them so we have to listen,” Kang said angrily.

Since 1945, when Korea was liberated from Japanese colonization, US Forces have been stationed on the Korean Peninsula and some Koreans have worked at the US Army Bases. Since then, Korean workers have done odd jobs, including laundry, distribution of food, and facilities repair. Their number currently stands at over 13,000, employed for 240 types of labor.

Under Article 17 of the US-ROK Status of Forces Agreement, the Korean workers are protected by Korean labor law, but in reality, they are struggling under the US Army’s one-way labor management. A worker identified by his last name Yu, 54, was hired as a waiter at a restaurant on the Yongsan base 25 years ago, but ended up more like an errand boy. “I did everything that they asked me to do to make a living without an academic background,” said Yu. Even though he has been working there for more than 20 years, his salary tops out at less than 2 million won (US$1,837).

It varies depending on duties, the average annual salary of Korean workers of the US Army is around 32 million won (US$29,400). “The problem is that salary has not kept up with the inflation rate,” maintains a member of the US Forces in Korea Employees Union.

Over the past six years, consumer prices have increased by 23.4%. During the same period, Korean employees’ wages have risen by 33.8%, while Korean civil servants’ salaries went up by 15.6 percent. However, Korean employees for the US Army in Korea saw their salaries increase only by 11.5% over the same period.

They had to accept low increase in salaries because they work at the will of the US, even though they are nominally eligible for the protection of Korean labor laws. The US government has been applying payment cap for local employees working on US army bases stationed abroad. The key point of the policy is that the salaries cannot increase by a higher rate than that of local public servants’ salary and that of US Federal Government’s public servants’ wage.

However, the US Forces in Korea has frozen the salary of local employees on the grounds that US Federal Government salaries have been frozen for two years, despite the fact that the wages of Korean civil servants has continued to increase. An announcement from US Forces of a policy to continue the local workforce salary freeze for three consecutive years through 2013 has drawn their ire.

The share of the defense expenses shouldered by the South Korean government for the stationing of the US forces, includes labor costs for local employees. In accordance with the SOFA agreement, 70 percent of the labor cost for Korean employees is paid with an allotment from the Korean government. These funds have been increasing every year from 680.4 billion won in 2006 to 812.5 billion won (US$622 million to $743 million) in 2011. Logically, salaries of local employees in the US Army base were supposed to have been increased proportionally, but did not.

Choi Ung-sik, secretary general of the US Forces in Korea Employees Union said, “The US government’s payment cap policy took away the union’s rights for collective bargaining and negotiations on wages, which are guaranteed by our Constitution and labor laws. The US government should abandon the policy itself and ensure wage increases that at least reflect the inflation rate.”

The Union is planning to switch into battle mode and announce their grievances on Nov. 17 in Yeouido Park, Seoul prior to commencing a general strike.

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