There are no such things as 'quality' part-time jobs

By Kim Tong-hyung

Here’s your midweek update on stories in entertainment and media you might have missed while reading about disputed maritime borders, the Snowdenger’s cat paradox, or because your life is undoubtedly a lot more fulfilling than ours.

The ‘quality part-time job’ farce

Bang Ha-nam, minister of (drone) labor

When pressed to address critical issues, President Park Geun-hye has a habit of pairing two different words into one because they sound nice and announcing them as “Big Thoughts.” And this has meant no thoughts were actually thought at all.

There has yet to be one convincing explanation about what “creative economy” actually means, although there is an entire ministry dedicated to it. Culture Minister Yoo Jin-ryong recently admitted that the concept of “cultural prosperity,” another Park slogan, was vague.

Labor Minister Bang Ha-nam does show more conviction in describing “quality part-time jobs,” which are at the center of Park’s plans to somehow boost household and chaebol income at the same time. But his idea of the concept only confirms there is no such thing as a quality part-time job, at least not in this country.

Talking to reporters in Seoul after a trip to the Netherlands, which is seen by this administration as a role-model economy balancing good living conditions with labor flexibility, Bang stressed the importance of employers having larger labor flexibility. He found it equally important that the government continues to do nothing about improving the compensation of part-time workers.

“There are many kinds of part-time jobs taken up by different people, including students or retirees, and it would be wrong to enforce something like average minimum income levels when their productivity levels are different,” Bang said.

“In advanced economies, working times are pretty much considered as flexible. Linking part-time jobs with the issues of corporate cost and take-home pay of workers would be considered an awkward argument in the Netherlands.”

Well, exactly which Netherlands was that? And what exactly are quality part-time jobs then?

It’s obviously not the ones that pay enough for a worker to support a family because that would run against why employers hire part-timers in the first place.

It’s not the ones with similar pay with regular jobs on an hourly basis because employers don’t want that either, not even for measly six-hour stints. Aren’t these the same corporate owners who throw a hissy fit every year over the talks to raise minimum wages by just several hundred won?

There has been much in the media about the meaning of Korea having a female president when its women are suffering from gender apartheid at home and work. But the whole debate on quality part-time jobs has once again exposed Park’s lack of awareness on the issue of economically-marginalized women.

When her policymakers, such as Bang, talk about working women, they seem to be thinking of housewives from middle-income families who are willing to spend their spare time earning money that is helpful but not essential. Female breadwinners or single moms continue to be sidelined from the discussions.

Non-regular workers, now accounting for half the country’s workforce, are being paid significantly less than their colleagues with permanent contracts, even when practically doing the same work. This is an enormous problem in a country where households are drowning under a sea of debt and consumption is failing as an economic engine.

Why girls must kiss first

There is at least one tangible product of having a female president and it’s the latest addition to the teenybopper genre.

Girl’s Day, one of the many K-pop girl bands overusing the wide-eyed-teen-queen look, are getting significant play for their new song, “Female President,” where they sing, “even our country’s president is a woman, so why are you so serious? Will a woman be arrested for kissing first?”

Girl’s Day

We have no idea what that means either. Somewhere, Girls Generation are preparing a song called “Quality Part-time Jobs.”

In other K-pop news, KARA, another K-pop girl group, has announced the plans for an October tour in Japan, where they are immensely popular.

The tour “KARA Second JapanTour 2013 — Karasia” will stop in the major Japanese cities of Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Kobe.

Lee Hong-ki, a member of the K-pop boy band FT Island, said he is planning to debut as an author later this year and his book will be about the art of nail polishing.

And, last but not least, people were still watching Psy’s “Gentleman” video on YouTube.

Ryu denies domestic violence

Ryu Si-won

Actor Ryu Si-won, whose image took an irrevocable beating last month when prosecutors indicted him for assaulting his wife and attaching a location tracker to her car, appeared at a Seoul court Tuesday and denied the charges of domestic violence. But yes, he did put a GPS device on her car.

“(My client) has never slapped her face with his palm, unlike what is described in the charges,” Ryu’s legal representatives told judge Lee Seong-yong at the Seoul Central District Court.

“(We admit) attaching the GPS tracker, but this had more to do with the defendant’s job, which requires him to work outside of the house for long periods,” he added, claiming that Ryu was using the technology just to ensure that his wife and daughter were safe.

Ryu’s wife filed a suit against him in February, claiming that he slapped her and threatened her during a fight. The two married in 2010. A divorce suit is currently pending between them.