Temporary Civil Servants Face Job Losses
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
The new government will eventually terminate contracts of temporary or specially-contracted civil servants as part of a governmental overhaul, officials from the presidential transition team said Sunday.
The team also said it will give a six-month grace period to these workers to help them find another job outside the government. It will not renew the contracts of non-permanent workers when their terms expire, it said.
Accordingly, massive job cuts in the civil service seem unavoidable and are expected to draw protests from those losing their job.
Affected officials said they will work together with their unions to fight what they call ``unfair'' restructuring. They were hired to perform specialized duties in the government, which were not performed by regular civil servants.
The transition team said the lay-off plan is legitimate as the law stipulates the government is allowed to fire these people under government reorganization.
The combined number of special service officials was 1,451 as of December 2006 ― the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries had the most with 295; followed by the Government Information Agency, 133; and the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, 132.
As for contract workers, the Ministry of Information and Communication has 200 temporary workers and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has 91.