By Yi Whan-woo
Only 9.9 percent of part-time workers have a chance to become full-timers despite government efforts to ensure job stability for the non-regular labor force.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor said Monday that 113,000 of the 1.14 million laborers with part-time contracts became full-time employees between April 2010 and July 2011.
The ministry conducted its latest research on part-time employees to gauge their working conditions, job security and treatment. The law requires employers to hire workers full-time when they serve at a company for two consecutive years.
The study, however, showed that workers employed on a part-time basis still have a slim chance of that. Among those 1.14 million workers, 356,000 or 31.2 percent managed to sign a so-called “open-ended” contract with their employers.
The contract allows them to be put on the regular payroll at a firm. Such employment, however, is different from permanent employment in terms of benefits a worker can receive.
“A worker on an open-ended contract is protected under the labor law and can’t be fired unless his or her employer has a convincing reason to do so,” the ministry said.
“What makes the worker different from a full-time employee, however, is that he or she can receive lower wage and less welfare benefits.”
The ministry also said that rate of wage increases among part-time workers including those on open-ended contracts was relatively low compared to permanent workers.
A total of 665,000 or 58.1 percent of the contract employees in the study remained at one company, while 480,000 other workers moved to other workplaces.
Among those who moved to different firms, 64 percent of them responded as wanting to get a different job. Others said they need a vocation that gives them time to take care of their children and housework.
A total of 69,000 among the 480,000 said they had to get another job because they were fired.
The ministry said that those who worked more than two years tended to remain at their workplaces for 4.7 year on average.
“The government must keep in mind that frequently moving workplace is not beneficial for either employers or employees,” said an official of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, one of the nation’s two largest umbrella labor unions.
“We urge the ministry to push and help part-time workers to become full-timers under the law once they serve for two years at a firm.”