On May 28, the day before the National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) of South Korea declared the first strike in Samsung Electronics’ history, 92 workers gathered in Seoul. These workers included freelancers, delivery drivers, security guards, and call center employees. The Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Labor and Employment Service organized the regional roundtable to hear from workers in vulnerable conditions.
Many attendees were “unorganized workers,” meaning they do not have a union to support them. More than half were contractors and freelancers. Four in ten had irregular work cycles or had worked two or more jobs in the last three months. They are part of the 88% of the labor market comprised of non-regular employees (19.36 million), in contrast to the 12% of full-time employees of large companies (2.6 million).
Participants sat in roundtables of six to seven people for four hours of discussion. Their stories were vastly different from those of the NSEU members, whose average wage is in the top 4% of workers and who declared a strike on the 29th to demand higher wages. They talked about basic worker rights, including their precarious employment, poor working conditions, and what they can do to avoid being exploited by their employers.
“My job doesn’t have a standard contract that spells out working conditions,” said one attendee, “and I often get paid less than my experience warrants because they use a generic contract that doesn’t reflect the nature of the work and my skills.”
“In 10 years of work, my salary has only increased by 5,000 won,” said an art instructor. Another subcontracted worker complained, “Sometimes I don’t get extra overtime pay, and my employer often dictates my wages and working conditions.”
When asked what they would like improved in their workplaces, 32.1% of respondents said job security. One worker, a pharmacy assistant at a hospital, said, “I’m on a 23-month’ trick contract’ so that the company won’t convert me to a full-time position.” Another said, “I’ve left one job after two years, so I feel insecure about my employment even if I stay for a long time.” One instructor described herself as “doomed by the size of her class.”
After job security, wages (29.8%) were the next area needing improvement. On that day, 21.4% of participants reported earning “less than 1 million won” per month on average. Many attendees also said they didn’t know if their salary was adequate. There was also a lack of worker training and requests for help with job searches.
The Korean government asked participants what they thought was most needed to address the problems in the current labor environment. Suggestions included “prohibiting the writing of memorandums that are unfavorable to workers,” “strongly cracking down on illegal subcontracting,” “reducing the wage gap between regular and non-regular workers,” and “paying more to non-regular workers who do more dangerous jobs.” There were also calls to introduce a standardized proficiency certification system for each industry that reflects work specialization.
Meanwhile, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions held a press conference outside the conference venue, claiming that “the government will continue to divide workers into the weak and the strong based on the regime’s criteria while claiming to support the charity-like policy through several roundtable discussions,” and that “the government is once again trying to deceive the people and workers by covering their eyes and ears.”
