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| Rep. Kim Sung-tae, right, floor leader of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, calls for an investigation into the recent nepotism scandal at Seoul Metro, in a party meeting at the National Assembly, Friday. / Yonhap |
By Lee Suh-yoon
Accusations over nepotism at Seoul Metro have been growing following allegations that over 100 workers acquired permanent employment contracts with the public firm through insider information provided by relatives already working there.
Seoul Metro, a city-owned company that operates subway lines Nos. 1 to 8, promoted 1,285 of its temporary employees to permanent jobs in March. The move was spurred by the death of a 19-year-old subcontracted mechanic in 2016, who was overworked and alone when the accident happened at Guui Station.
The city government then announced it would hire temporary workers filling safety management positions as regular workers.
But 108 of those who were promoted to be permanent workers were found to have family ties to workers who were already working at the company, according to company records.
Opposition lawmakers claim that this was not a coincidence, and was a result of planned maneuvers by union members who they claim encouraged relatives to sign on as contract workers just before the city government's move to switch temporary employees to permanent workers.
"The privileged class of workers in unions are taking away job opportunities from others, who are powerless," Kim Byung-joon, chairman of an emergency committee formed by the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, said during a National Assembly audit into the city government Thursday.
The suspicions were further compounded by the recent revelation that the head of the recruitment department at Seoul Metro intentionally left out his wife, who was also made a permanent worker in March, from the list of new hires he had to submit to an internal investigation.
"Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon should take responsibility for the unfair privileges unveiled in switching contract workers to permanent employees at Seoul Metro and other city-affiliated firms," Rep. You Min-bong of the LKP said.
Floor leader Rep. Kim Sung-tae said Friday that he was filing for a formal state investigation into the matter. He and other LKP members claim the "labor-friendly" President Moon Jae-in was also partly responsible for the scandal.
"We must conduct a thorough investigation of public companies with illicit hiring practices to stamp out nepotism under the Moon administration," Kim said.
In response to the attacks, Mayor Park said he did not believe there had been corrupt practices involved in the hiring but added he would request the Board of Audit and Inspection to look into the matter.
"The signing of permanent employment contracts was carried out on the understanding that no lives should be put at risk again in the name of economic efficiency following the Guui Station accident," Park said in his defense, Thursday.
In addition, the city government pointed out in a press statement that 34 of the 108 new permanent workers with relatives at Seoul Metro were hired before the accident.
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