By Kim Rahn
The nation’s two umbrella unions have warned of a massive strike in September if the government pushes ahead with introducing a performance-based salary system for public workers.
Leaders of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) Tuesday pledged to join their efforts to oppose the government plan.
The joint action comes as the government encourages public organizations to adopt a performance-based wage system in an effort to enhance public servants’ competitiveness. The unions of civil workers, state-run financial institutions and public medical institutions are under the two umbrella unions.
“Unlike private companies where workers can be evaluated by sales or other performance records, public organizations do not have such evaluation standards as they work for the public good,” a FKTU spokesman said during a joint press conference at the FKTU building in Seoul. “But the government is pushing ahead with the system without establishing reasonable evaluation criteria.”
The unions plan to stage sit-ins by the end of June, which the government gave as a deadline for public companies to adopt the system. On June 18, they will hold a massive rally in Seoul with 50,000 participants.
If the government sticks to its plan, some 200,000 members of the two umbrella unions will go on strike sometime in September, they said.
The two unions also plan to file a complaint against the strategy and finance minister for violating the laws on labor unions and public organization management. “At public companies, the management is adopting the system unilaterally without the unions’ consent, and the minister is leading the illegal activities,” the spokesman said.
They will also demand the National Assembly set up a special committee to improve the labor-management relationship in the public sector.
“The system ― which ranks public servants, provides graded salaries and even fires workers ― will only ruin the organizations’ public nature and threaten public safety,” he said.