Labor groups hold rally for workers' right over weekend
Some 2,000 members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions gathered in front of Jongno Tower in central Seoul to urge the Korean Expressway Corp. to reinstate 1,500 toll collectors as ruled by the Supreme Court. / Yonhap
By Kim Jae-heun
Labor groups held rallies in Seoul on Saturday, calling for employers to give permanent positions to part-time workers and provide a better and safer working environment.
Some 2,000 members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) gathered in front of Jongno Tower in central Seoul to urge the Korean Expressway Corp. (KEC) to reinstate 1,500 toll collectors as ruled by the Supreme Court.
The toll collectors were dismissed earlier this year after refusing the state-run expressway operator's attempt to hire them indirectly through its newly established subsidiary. The workers argued that the KEC was reluctant to hire them directly because it plans to fire them soon and adopt a smart-tolling system by 2020.
Last Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling in favor of the toll collectors, a decision that came six years after the workers filed the suit in 2013. The workers demanded the KEC reinstate the 1,500 fired toll collectors in accordance with the court ruling.
Near Cheong Wa Dae, some 1,000 members of the public transportation unit under the KCTU held a separate rally to demand public power plants stop outsourcing dangerous jobs.
The protest came after a state-organized fact-finding committee announced that state-run power plant operators and their subcontractors failed to set up sufficient safety systems, as seen in the fatal accident of young irregular worker Kim Yong-gyun at Taean Power Plant last December.
Besides the unsafe facilities, a high concentration of crystal quartz was found at his worksite, which is classified as a class-one carcinogen, and the workers were exposed to dangerous substances including benzene and carbon monoxide on a daily basis, according to the committee.
“We'll fight until the power plants stop outsourcing dangerous work to subcontractors and hiring workers directly,” the union said in its statement.
Meanwhile, the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) urged the Korean government to expand the scope of a new “safe rate” payment system, which is designed to help truck drivers secure proper payment.
Currently cargo truck drivers have to load and transport as much as possible, as quickly as possible, because they are paid by the volume of cargo. Therefore, drivers are prone to exhaustion and the danger of possible road accidents caused by fatigue, so the government promised to introduce a safe rate, a kind of minimum wage, starting in 2020.
However, the drivers argued that the government plan is limited to specific types of cargo only, applying only to about 10 percent of cargo drivers.
The ITF said it supports Korean drivers and urged the government to make sure workers get the right payment and a safer working environment.