Civic group ‘Workplace Gapjil 119’ announced five major labor reform tasks this year, criticizing Korea for being one of the countries that work the most hours in the world.
On the 6th, Workplace Gapjil held 119 press conferences and selected problems related to overtime, labor contracts, prime contractors, gender violence, and workplaces with fewer than five workers as the top five labor tasks to reform this year.
On this day, Workplace Gapjil 119 criticized that Korea has the fifth longest working hours among the OECD countries, and that working hours could increase to 90 hours per week if the Yoon Seok-yeol government’s reorganization of working hours is realized.
“40% of office workers who can’t take part in union activities help form a union online”
On this day, Workplace Gapjil 119 announced that it would support the launch of an online trade union this year.
In Korea, the rate of union membership is low in the private sector, especially in the smaller workplaces.
As of 2021, the overall unionization rate is 14.2%, but the gap between the public sector (70%) and the private sector (11.2%) is large. The organization rate in the private sector tends to decrease around △300 or more employees 46.3% △100 to 299 people 10.4% △30 to 99 people 1.6% △less than 30 employees 0.2% according to the size of the workplace.
Kwon Nam-pyo, a labor attorney at Work Gapjil 119, said, “In a survey of 1,000 office workers, we repeatedly asked about their intention to join an online union for 3 or 4 years. As a result, 40 to 49% were always satisfied. Because of this difficulty, the rate of unionization is low, and I decided it was time to show that it is okay to participate in union activities (through this activity).”
Workplace Gabjil 119 is a plan to gather office workers by company, agenda, and job category under the name ’employee rights group’ to help them participate in union activities online.
Labor Attorney Kwon said, “The purpose is not just to fight against the workplace, but to gather strength by connecting with like-minded colleagues in similar circumstances.” You will be able to ask for a change in the workplace,” he explained.
In addition, Workplace Abuse 119 announced that it would be reporting on problems with labor contracts and holding various projects and events such as exhibitions and discussions on ‘power abuse contracts’ to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Labor Standards Act this year .
In addition, to mark the first anniversary of the ‘Shindang Station Murder Case’, an international symposium on gender-based violence will be held and a ‘Sexual Violence Reporting Centre’ will be activated to support victims.
On the other hand, Workplace Gapjil 119 is a civic group that supports office workers to come together and solve workplace problems on their own, and was launched in November 2017.
Reporter Kim Chae-hyun
