Non-permanent public sector employees’ status to be raised

By Kim Tae-jong

Nearly 100,000 non-permanent employees at public workplaces will be able to become “indefinite contract workers,” a position equivalent to that of permanent staff this year, the government said Monday.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor said it has completed guidelines for the measure to upgrade the job status of temporary public workers and passed them on to related public organizations.

Non-permanent employees at post offices and other state-invested public companies will gain the status of “indefinite contract workers” should they have stayed on the same employers’ payroll for more than two years.

The move is aimed at improving conditions for irregular permanent workers in the public sector as they receive lower wages and fewer benefits, the ministry said.

“We will take a close look at the working conditions of irregular workers and make a continuous effort to improve them and root out discriminative treatment,” Labor Minister Lee Chae-pil said.

He made the remarks at a meeting with parcel sorters at Korea Post’s mail center in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province.

Parcel sorters are included in non-permanent employees who will benefit from the new measure.

Korea Post hired 6,177 irregular workers who had been there for over two years as indefinite contract workers in 2007.

State agencies and public companies should hire temporary workers who have been on the payroll for more than two years as permanent staff if their job or post is expected to be required in the next two years.

Companies are allowed to take into consideration employees’ work performance, ability and attitude when they upgrade their status but the government will review the process through which firms hire temporary workers as indefinite contract employees to make sure they follow the guidelines.

They specify the existing law, which came into effect to protect the growing number of non-regular workers.

The law requires employers to hire temporary workers who have been on the payroll for more than two years as permanent ones but it has led to worse job security for them as many companies have opted to terminate contracts with those who were nearing the two-year limit instead of elevating them to regular status.

The ministry estimates that about 97,000 of 340,000 non-permanent employees will benefit from the new measure this year.

Along with the job status elevation, irregular workers will also be entitled to higher wages and more benefits.

Non-permanent workers who have been employed for more than one year will receive 300,000 won a year in “welfare points,” which can be used as cash at many retail outlets.