Focus: Labour rights under attack by Park Geun-Hye government

Abstract

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 10 Volume 22 Issue 1 2015 Four attacks in 2013 exemplify the administration’s hostility to labour FOCUS ❐ SOUTH KOREA W hile successive Korean governments have been hostile to organised labour, and workers generally, the current government led by President Park, Guen-Hye has taken anti-union hostility to a new level. President Park, the daughter of Park, Chung-hee (the military strongman who took power in coup d’etat in 1961 and ruled Korea as President until assassinated in 1979), has moved quickly to crack down on militant unions upon assuming office on 25 February 2013. She has also moved to ban leftleaning political parties, such as the Unified Progressive Party. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (‘KCTU’) has gone so far as to call for her to step down, and has organised general strikes opposing her government’s policies. It is now roughly two decades since Korea joined the ILO and the OECD, in both cases committing to bring its laws and practices into line with international standards on fundamental workers’ rights including on collective bargaining and freedom of association. Progress made in this direction is now being dramatically reversed. Four attacks in 2013 exemplify the administration’s hostility to labour. ■ On 24 October 2013, the Ministry of Employment and Labour (‘MOEL’) unilaterally revoked the registration of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (‘KTU’). Its decision was based on the fact that the union’s constitution allowed dismissed and retired members to remain members and leaders. Around 40 members of KTU were dismissed during the previous administration for their activities including expressing their opinion on the governments’ education policy and/or for donations to progressive political parties. These workers, whose dismissals were also questioned by the ILO, are considered members of the KTU. Korean labour law provides that dismissed workers are not eligible to remain members or to be leaders – in direct contravention of international law and specifically criticised by the ILO. Though the union secured a temporary injunction, the court eventually upheld the government action in June 2014, ending collective agreements and forcing union officials to end all representational activity and return to the classroom . The KTU then appealed to the High Court seeking an injunction and challenged the constitutionality of the ban on dismissed teachers joining unions to the Constitutional Court. The High Court granted an injunction on 19 September 2014 and the constitutional complaint was accepted. The legal status of the KTU was immediately restored and the Education Ministry has refrained from further action awaiting the decision of the Constitutional Court. ■ For over a decade, the Korean Government Employees Union (‘KGEU’) has attempted to register without success1 . Among the reasons was the fact that the union constitution, like that of the KTU, allows dismissed workers to remain as members of the union2 . The latest attempt at registration began on 27 May 2013, when the KGEU submitted a new application to the MOEL. The MOEL requested supplemental information by 22 July. In July, negotiations between the parties continued during which the KGEU proposed amendments to its Constitution. The KGEU believed that these amendments had been accepted by the government and convened a congress to revise the Constitution. On 22 July, the union submitted the supplementary materials to the MOEL. On 2 August, the MOEL returned the application and again denied the registration, stating that the constitution could still be interpreted to allow dismissed workers to retain membership. In November 2013, the government raided the KGEU headquarters and searched the union’s computer servers, alleging that the union violated Korean law requiring civil servants to remain politically neutral – a provision also criticised by the ILO. The union continues to function as an illegal organisation. In response to government plans to move forward with a rail privatisation plan, which was strongly opposed by the public, the members of the Korean Railway Workers Union (‘KRWU’) voted in overwhelming numbers to strike starting December 2013. The last time the KRWU struck, in 2009, the government declared the strike illegal despite the union following the letter of the law – which in Korea places substantial limitations on the right to strike in the transportation sector. The government...