Govt Told to Respect Migrant Workers Rights to Form Union
By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Amnesty International, the world's largest human rights watchdog, urged the government Tuesday to respect the rights of migrant workers to form a union, calling for the immediate removal of all legal obstacles.
In a statement, Amnesty said ``the refusal of the government to recognize legal union status of the Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants Trade Union (MTU) constitutes a denial of the rights to freely form and join trade unions, a right protected in the Korean Constitution and international human rights law.''
The Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for migrant workers' affairs, did not respond to the statement immediately. ``It was issued suddenly so that we had no room to examine the statement. We will issue a reply within days,'' a justice ministry official told The Korea Times.
The MTU was established in April 2005 for migrant workers regardless of their legal status. The Ministry of Labor rejected MTU's notification of its establishment on the basis that illegal migrant workers do not have the same rights to be protected under Korean law as legal migrant workers.
But in February 2007, the Seoul High Court ruled in favor of MTU, stating ``the Constitution and the Trade Union Law protect the rights to freedom of association of all those who enter into an employment relationship as workers, including illegal migrant workers.''
The ministry appealed the case to the Supreme Court and a final ruling is expected before the end of the year.
Amnesty stressed the labor ministry violates domestic law and international conventions to which Korea is a state party.
``The Constitution provides that treaties duly concluded and promulgated under the Constitution and generally recognized rules of international law should have the same force and effect of law as domestic laws. Therefore, the Korean government is obliged to protect the rights outlined in international conventions that it has ratified.''
The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination stipulates all member states must protect the right to freedom of association of workers irrespective of their immigration status.