Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Working parents' woes deepen over school workers' strike
After-school childcare workers hold a rally outside the building of the Ministry of Education in Sejong, Nov. 6. Yonhap
By Bahk Eun-ji
By Bahk Eun-ji
Working parents of elementary school students are scrambling to find suitable childcare options as more school workers, including cafeteria workers, warned of a bigger and more disruptive strike if the government and the National Assembly fail to heed their calls for better working conditions.
According to the Ministry of Education, 4,902 out of 11,895, or 41.3 percent of care workers participated in the strike on Friday. Out of 5,998 elementary schools that run such after-school programs across the country, 2,697 or 44.9 percent of them took part in the strike. Of 12,211 after-school classes nationwide, 4,231 were shut down on the day.
The number of closed after-school classes was lower than initially expected as education authorities mobilized non-striking workers and asked school officials to volunteer their services to maintain childcare services during the strike. However, parents affected by the strike were scrambling for alternatives for their children as many working parents already used their annual leave in the first half of the year when schools delayed opening due to the coronavirus outbreak.
A 32-year-old mother of an elementary school student in Hanam, Gyeonggi Province, who wished to be identified only by her surname Jun, said, “I had to ask my parents to take care of my son after school as I can't take any more days off this year.”
Park Eun-hye, a 36-year-old mother of a second-grader at an elementary school in Nowon District in northeastern Seoul, said, “Working parents like me already used their annual leave at the beginning of the year. I was literally sweating, trying to find a place to leave my child as my parents as well as my in-laws live in other provinces.”
There are complaints about the repeated strikes, as the irregular school workers' coalition warned that school cafeteria workers are also planning to walk out on Nov. 19 and 20, to demand improvements to their retirement pension system, the elimination of discrimination for various allowances, and for them to be granted regular worker status.
“I understand that school workers are actively demanding better working conditions because it is their livelihood,” said Kim Soo-jin, head of the Korean Federation of Parents' Associations. “But as the school meal and care strikes are repeated every year, children seem to be increasingly used as hostages.”
According to a national union for irregular school workers, some 4,900 after-school childcare workers ― 40 percent of those in the country ― staged a one-day strike on Friday.
The union urged the Ministry of Education to withdraw a legislative revision that would place the after-school care program under the management of local government authorities, because the local government could commission the private sector to provide the services, which would lead to even poorer working conditions for them.
Currently, elementary schools individually hire workers to look after students who need supervision after school hours. Nearly 200,000 elementary school students have benefited from the program.
The union members also demanded an elevation in their employment status from part time to full time, saying they have been working longer hours without additional pay amid increased demand for their services due to the coronavirus pandemic.