By Jung Min-ho
Some 200 migrant workers staged a protest in central Seoul, Sunday, calling on the government to give them more labor rights.
A protest rally on May Day would have been more symbolic, but the migrant workers, who are largely from Southeast Asia, “had to do it today because they can’t take the day off like most Korean workers do,” said Udaya Rai, leader of the Migrants’ Trade Union (MTU), an organization which is not recognized by the government, despite its 10 years of existence.
The protesters demanded three fundamental labor rights provided for under the Constitution: the establishment of unions, collective bargaining and taking collective action – as well as more freedom to change their workplaces and higher salaries.
“Violations of the basic rights of 700,000 migrant workers are still rampant,” Rai said. “The law should be revised to guarantee their rights, severance pay and more freedom to choose the companies they want to work at.”
Under the current system, employers can pay migrant workers severance pay only after they leave Korea. Reps. Kim Sung-tae and Kim Hack-yong from the ruling Saenuri party introduced the bill for this last year to reduce the number of illegal aliens. But because of the law, many workers claim, they end up getting nothing from their employers and there is little they can do about it.
Rai said the first thing the government should do is to recognize the MTU as a legitimate trade union.
To do so, members of the MTU took the issue to court in 2005. But after the Seoul High Court ruled in favor of the workers in 2007, the Supreme Court has yet to issue a verdict on the case.
“May 1 will be the 125th anniversary of the very first international May Day celebrations, but the reality for many migrant workers has not changed much,” Rai said.
“We will continue to fight until our demands are met. The government should know that we are not going to sit around, just waiting for their action.”
Choi Jong-jin, chief vice chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the nation’s second largest umbrella union, said the union will cooperate with the MTU to improve the working conditions of migrant workers.
Through its special report last year, Amnesty International also urged the government to do more to prevent violations of their human rights. It said that workers are often abused, even though many of them take on huge debt equivalent to two years’ salary in their home nations to get a job here.
According to the report, migrants are often compelled to work under conditions that they do not agree to, under threat of various forms of punishment including intimidation, violence, being assigned bad housing, being forced to work excessive numbers of hours, no days of rest in the week and denial of paid overtime.
However, so far the labor ministry has done nothing to address these issues.