Employment and Labor Minister Lee Jung-sik adjusts the microphone to give an inauguration speech at the inauguration ceremony held at the Sejong Government Complex in Sejong City on the morning of May 11, 2022. yunhap news
The Yoon Seok-yeol administration, which has raised transparency in trade union accounting as a key theme for labor reform, criticizes the (union) for denying the rule of law while using hundreds of billions of money earned in government subsidies, which is blood the people. tax. However, contrary to the government’s claim, subsidies given to unions are often entrusted to unions for various education and counseling projects that should be undertaken by the public sector. The total subsidy received by the trade union from the central government over the past five years is 23 billion won (an annual average of 4.6 billion won). Of this, 83% (19 billion won) was paid for projects run by the FKTU, most of which was spent on labor costs at 19 counseling centers run by the FKTU. From 2022 onwards, the government subsidy supported by the Korean Federation of Trade Unions as a ‘labor organization support competition project’ has been won by 2.6 billion, of which 1.47 billion was spent on the legal consultation and rescue project (the operation of a labor consultation). The labor cost for 34 counselors in labor education counseling centers in 19 regions was 1.258 billion won, and the rest was spent on online website management, communication expenses, and education project promotion expenses. According to the results of the Nara Salim Research Institute’s analysis of central government subsidies for 5 years (2017-2021), 6 of the top 10 subsidies paid to trade unions by central government were for legal aid counseling programs for workers, and 2 were on for foreign workers It is a help center support project. The books and documents relating to the funding of the trade union’s own dues which the government requires to be submitted have nothing to do with state subsidies. Nevertheless, on the 23rd of last month, the Ministry of Labor published the ‘business reorganization plan for the support of labor organizations’ and announced that labor organizations that did not submit financial documents were excluded from the choice of support projects. Also, starting this year, half of the budget for labor group support projects (around 2.2 billion won) will be allocated to new labor groups such as ‘a consultative body consisting of workers and the MZ union’. This is the background to the government’s ‘union shake-up’, which is at risk of cutting the labor costs of 19 labor counseling centres. Reporter Jang Hyun-eun mix@hani.co.kr
