By Kim Bo-eun
Workers in the public and finance sectors are set to begin a strike this week to protest the government’s move to introduce the performance-based wage system, which they claim will make lay-offs easier.
Some 100,000 members of the Federation of Korean Public Industry Trade Unions plan to stage a strike and have a massive gathering in front of Seoul Station, Wednesday.
The Korean Financial Industry Union is set to follow suit Thursday, having a gathering at the Seoul World Cup Stadium to announce their strike, demanding the government scrap the new wage system. The union has notified bank customers of the planned strike, and has vowed to hold additional strikes if their demands are not met.
On Sept. 27, the railway and subway unions will go on a joint strike, their first in 22 years. The unions claim the accident at Guui subway station in eastern Seoul in May, which resulted in the death of a worker of a subway operator subcontractor, took place due to the introduction of the performance-based pay system, “which prioritizes profit making over safety.”
Workers of the National Health Insurance Service and National Pension Service will join the strike, as well as some 14,000 hospital workers.
Around 60,000 members of the nation's two umbrella unions will launch a strike, Sept. 29.
“It is an illegal act to implement the performance-based pay system based on the sole decision of board members, despite opposition from unions,” said a spokesman for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, one of the two.
Meanwhile, the labor ministry said it would push forward with the wage system reform regardless.
“In the case of illegal acts during the strikes, we will take stern measures toward those responsible according to law and principle," said Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Ki-kweon in a briefing in Seoul. “We will also make sure that the principle of ‘no-work no-pay’ is applied.”