By Do Je-hae
Staff Reporter
The government has branded the Korean Government Employees' Union (KGEU) as an illegitimate entity, vowing to take disciplinary actions against its members.
"The Ministry of Labor has informed us of their decision to deny legal status of the KGEU," First Vice Minister Chung Chang-seop of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security at a briefing Monday. "We will take proper measures to restrict the KGEU."
The labor ministry said that the KGEU is an illegitimate entity, as it has defied the government's repeated orders to kick out fired workers from the union last month.
"As the KGEU has been practically been ruled illegitimate, we will stop all forms of support," Chung said. Membership fees have been collected through deduction from paychecks which have been automatically directed toward the KGEU.
The public administration ministry will urge full-time union members to return to their original posts. It will also seek cooperation from local and provincial administrations to close all offices of the 125 regional chapters.
"The government is taking out its frustration on us through the ministries of labor and public administration. We will take the matter to court," Sohn Tae-young, head of the KGEU said. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), a hawkish umbrella group to which the civil servants' union belongs, is planning "comprehensive countermeasures against the government's oppression of public worker's labor movement."
The ministry is also seeking legal revisions to prohibit public servants and their unions from supporting political parties and issuing statements or holding anti-government rallies in affiliation with any political group.
They would be banned from wearing ribbons, armbands or vests carrying political slogans during office hours.
The KGEU constitutes one of the three public workers' unions with the Korean Democracy Government Employees Union and the Court Government Employees Union. The three unions will be consolidated in December, commanding a membership of about 115,000. The consolidated civil service union is the third largest industrial group under the KCTU's wing.
Tension between public workers and the government escalated after three labor unions representing civil servants last month voted to join the militant KCTU. The public affairs ministry last week dismissed 15 lead members of the unions and disciplined a dozen others for participating in anti-government rallies in July.
jhdo@koreatimes.co.kr