Part-timers suffer abuse
A part-timer heads home after a tiring night shift at a 7-Eleven store in Seoul. Many part-time workers still suffer from low wages, maltreatment and bad working conditions. / Korea Times
Activists call for hike in minimum wage
By Kwon Ji-youn
Oh Ho-bom, 22, is a student attending a university in Seoul. He also works part-time to earn money for living expenses.
He finds it difficult to study and work at the same time. But more frustrating is that he has often felt abused or exploited by his employers.
Oh complained that his rights as a part-timer have not been protected properly.
“I worked at a convenience store for 4,200 won ($3.70) per hour,” he said. The sum is less than the minimum wage of 4,860 won per hour.
He also did not sign an employment contract with the store operator. In fact, he didn’t even know that such a contract existed.
“I couldn’t claim my rights because I had no contract. The store owner, like many other employers, had apparently been reluctant to sign contracts with part-timers in a bid to ignore their rights,” he said.
As a result, many part-timers move from job to job, hoping for better working conditions. This exacerbates the situation because employers have to teach new part-timers over and over again.
Oh Hye-rin, 20, another college student, worked as a parking valet for 4,500 won ($3.98) per hour.
“It wasn’t enough to help pay for tuition,” she said. “I ended up making some pocket money, but not nearly enough.”
Despite such conditions, the number of part-time workers has doubled in the past seven years.
According to Statistics Korea, the number grew from 310,000 in 2005 to 623,000 people in 2012.
The ages of those employed ranges from those in their late teens to people in their 40s or 50s.
An Su-jeong, head of the PR team at Albamon, a job search engine and online recruiting portal, said there are two reasons why people take on part-time work.
“The first reason is money,” An said in an interview with The Korea Times. “Other people work part-time to experience a range of jobs. So these are the two - money and experience.”
This is good news for some. The service sector is especially in need of part-timers, because businesses are often busiest during afternoons and evenings.
Furthermore, not all jobs have vacancies, as it states in their job descriptions, with enough work to pay them the amount earned by a new full-time recruit or employee.
For owners, it’s a good way for smaller jobs to be taken care of, so that employees can focus on their own line of work.
But this train of thought can also be a problem.
“Many people think that part-time work can be done in your free time, but recently it has become full-time employment for some,” said An.
Byun Young-hee, 42, a housewife and mother, worked at a food market for 5,000 won ($4.42) per hour, slightly more than the minimum hourly wage. But she complained that six hours of work was too exhausting for just 30,000 won ($26.55) a day.
Kim Jong-jin, a research fellow at the Korea Labor Society Institution (KLSI), said, “One of the biggest problems regarding part-time workers is the fact that they work almost as much as regular employees, but for a significantly lower wage.”
“In some cases, employees pass down their work to part-timers, even if it’s not part of their job description,” Kim said.
According to Statistics Korea, regular employees last year worked an average of 41.4 hours per week and made 2.46 million won ($2,177) each month whereas part-timers worked 20.1 hours a week and made 607,000 won ($537) per month.
The data showed that part-timers worked for half as long as regular employees but received one-fourth of their pay.
“But more important,” Kim expanded, “is the fact that part-timers don’t sign contracts with their bosses.”
“Bosses need to sign contracts with new employees and provide them with a copy, even if they are part-timers,” he continued. “Less than 4 percent of part-time employees sign contracts.”
An agrees with Kim.
“There should definitely be changes made in the working environment, but there should also be changes in the way people view part-time jobs,” she said. “It needs to be understood that even part-time work can take up a good portion of your time, and that’s why working conditions are so important.”
A response
One of the first to respond on behalf of part-timers was the Youth Community Union (YCU). This organization has around 650 active registered members.
Members of the union are responsible for several achievements, including the discontinuance of the 30-minute pizza delivery policy, which states that pizza no longer needs to be delivered within this time frame, and a policy that states that if someone works six days a week, they should be paid for Sundays, their day off.
The “Albayeondae,” or part-time workers’ solidarity, is also steadily gaining interest. The group is currently fighting for the minimum wage to be raised to 10,000 won per hour, as well as for the improvement of working conditions at franchises of large corporations, including Paris Baguette, Lotteria, and Caffe Bene.
Albayeondae members held a press conference on April 5, demanding that the Ministry of Employment and Labor raise the minimum wage and improve working conditions for part-timers.
They claimed that “the number of part-timers who work to make a living has risen sharply” and that “the ministry is handling the situation as if it only relates to students making a little extra pocket-money.”
“The problem is that the ministry feels as though the law holds no meaning, because it’s not followed,” said Kwon Moon-seok, Albayeondae’s spokesman, in an interview with The Korea Times.
“If part-timers are paid 10,000 won ($8.85) per hour, that still doesn’t exceed two million won per month. Even the government announced that a single person needs 1.6 million won per month, and so the minimum wage needs to be at least 10,000 won,” he said.
“I believe that the government and large companies are responsible for the abuse and exploitation of part-timers,” Kwon continued. “The companies are taking what should be owed to part-timers.”
In response to Albayeondae’s position, Kim said that (their attitude) “seems right, but they should avoid being too political about the issue.”