ID :
50497
Sat, 03/14/2009 - 15:16
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https://www.oananews.org//node/50497
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Gov`t announces plan to revise controversial non-regular workers` bill
SEOUL, March 13 (Yonhap) -- The government on Friday officially announced a plan
to revise the country's law governing non-regular workers as concerns grow over
mounting unemployment.
The Ministry of Labor posted on its gazette and its Web site a draft of the
government's proposed amendment to the bill, which currently requires companies
to offer non-regular workers regular employment after two years of work.
The new legislation will call for doubling that initial employment period to four
years, ministry officials said. The ministry will submit the bill to the National
Assembly in April, hoping for legislative approval by June.
The revision of the bill, first introduced in July 2007, was spurred by an
economic downturn that virtually froze the job market. The nation shed 103,000
jobs in January from a year earlier, marking the steepest loss since October 2003
when 189,000 jobs disappeared, according to latest government statistics.
Because firing a regular employee entails a complicated legal process in South
Korea, businesses often let go of their non-regular workers after two years of
employment.
Although the bill's intended result was to get more companies to hire non-regular
workers as regular ones, employers have been criticized for taking advantage of
loopholes in the law by dismissing temporary workers before the two-year term
expires or by hiring outsourced workers instead.
The government initially wanted to submit the revised bill to the parliament in
January but was forced to wait as the ruling party failed to reach an agreement
with labor union representatives on the proposed revision.
The ministry also plans to spend 346 billion won (US$233 million) to pay half of
all social insurance expenses over the next two years for companies that
voluntarily offer non-regular workers full employment. The move is expected to
effectively create a minimum of 200,000 jobs, according to the ministry.
Government investigation into workplace discrimination will be strengthened, and
non-regular workers filing complaints against employers will receive free legal
services, the ministry said.
Critics, mostly in the labor sector, have opposed the plan, saying that the
revisions would draw results contrary to the intended goal by prolonging
temporary employment period, further destabilizing working conditions.
"The bill is not a measure but a scheme allowing companies to neglect and ignore
the condition of non-regular workers," Kang Choong-ho, spokesperson for the
Federation of Korean Trade Unions, said.
The Korea Confederation of Trade Union, a more radical umbrella group, also said
in a statement that the bill is aimed at turning the employment status of the
country's entire workforce into non-regular status.
"(The government) has turned a blind eye to the demands of non-regular workers
and is instead pushing for a revised bill that will eternally chain them to their
non-regular employment condition," the KCTU said.
(END)
to revise the country's law governing non-regular workers as concerns grow over
mounting unemployment.
The Ministry of Labor posted on its gazette and its Web site a draft of the
government's proposed amendment to the bill, which currently requires companies
to offer non-regular workers regular employment after two years of work.
The new legislation will call for doubling that initial employment period to four
years, ministry officials said. The ministry will submit the bill to the National
Assembly in April, hoping for legislative approval by June.
The revision of the bill, first introduced in July 2007, was spurred by an
economic downturn that virtually froze the job market. The nation shed 103,000
jobs in January from a year earlier, marking the steepest loss since October 2003
when 189,000 jobs disappeared, according to latest government statistics.
Because firing a regular employee entails a complicated legal process in South
Korea, businesses often let go of their non-regular workers after two years of
employment.
Although the bill's intended result was to get more companies to hire non-regular
workers as regular ones, employers have been criticized for taking advantage of
loopholes in the law by dismissing temporary workers before the two-year term
expires or by hiring outsourced workers instead.
The government initially wanted to submit the revised bill to the parliament in
January but was forced to wait as the ruling party failed to reach an agreement
with labor union representatives on the proposed revision.
The ministry also plans to spend 346 billion won (US$233 million) to pay half of
all social insurance expenses over the next two years for companies that
voluntarily offer non-regular workers full employment. The move is expected to
effectively create a minimum of 200,000 jobs, according to the ministry.
Government investigation into workplace discrimination will be strengthened, and
non-regular workers filing complaints against employers will receive free legal
services, the ministry said.
Critics, mostly in the labor sector, have opposed the plan, saying that the
revisions would draw results contrary to the intended goal by prolonging
temporary employment period, further destabilizing working conditions.
"The bill is not a measure but a scheme allowing companies to neglect and ignore
the condition of non-regular workers," Kang Choong-ho, spokesperson for the
Federation of Korean Trade Unions, said.
The Korea Confederation of Trade Union, a more radical umbrella group, also said
in a statement that the bill is aimed at turning the employment status of the
country's entire workforce into non-regular status.
"(The government) has turned a blind eye to the demands of non-regular workers
and is instead pushing for a revised bill that will eternally chain them to their
non-regular employment condition," the KCTU said.
(END)
