PSPD in English Socio-Economic 2011-01-26   5424

Is This a Fair Contract?: Sanitation Workers’ Contract, 750,000 won(US $670) a Month


Is This a Fair Contract?
: Sanitation Workers’ Contract, 750,000 won(US $670) a Month, 300 won(US 27¢) a Day for Meals



MP Hong Hee-duk who used to be a sanitation worker and the Committee for Fair Labor Society of PSPD held a symposium to discuss how to improve the working environment of sanitation workers and find solutions to their unstable employment.


People from all walks of life including actress Kim Yeo-jin have paid attention to the Hongik Univ. sanitation workers’ case.

                        Kim Seong-woo, Kim Yeo-jin, Lee Sang-sun from the left


On Tuesday, 18 January,  the Committee for Fair Labor Society of PSPD and an MP Hong Hee-duk’s office(Democratic Labor Party) held a symposium at the National Assembly Members Office Building, under the title: “Is this a fair contract?: Sanitation workers’ contract, 750,000 won(US $670) a month, 300 won(US 27¢) a day for meals” for improving the working environment of sanitation workers and finding solutions to unstable employment. The symposium was organized to review the problem of the poor working environment of sanitation workers and the unstable employment structure raised by the Hongik University sanitation workers’ case.




                     You In-deok, Kwon Young-gook, Hwang Soon-sik from the left



Lee Sang-sun, key note speaker of the symposium and the Director of the Seoul Incheon Chapter of the Korea Public Service Union, argued that while there are around ten thousand janitorial service workers nationwide, at present they are no better than ‘invisible men’ who we carelessly pass by.


In addition, an actress and talent Kim Yeo-jin called a “Twitter keeper for the cleaning workers of Hongik University” visiting a sit-in site of the cleaning workers of Hongik University and posting the news on Twitter, Park Won-suk(the cooperative executive director of the PSPD), Kwon Yong-guk(the labor chairman of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society), Yoo In-duk(the human rights policy director of the National Human Rights Commission), Hwang Soon-sik(A deputy chairman of Gwacheon city council, the Progressive Party) and Han Won-soon(the cleaning worker of Duksung Women’s University) also took part in the symposium today.

He also highlighted that sanitation workers have continuously accepted lower than the minimum wage pay, poor working conditions and suffered repeated unstable employment and unreasonable instructions., Despite these sacrifices the sanitation workers are still not even accepted as working members of the university where they work as they are service workers indirectly employed. 

Lee Sang-sun further pointed out that universities will teach liberty, justice and truth in lecture halls but offer poor working conditions and unstable employment to their irregular workers. He purported that what sanitation workers need is not sympathy but recognition of the structural causes of their plight in order to unite people around raising the issue together.


Kim Sung-woo, Yonsei University student, who participated as a speaker, spoke of his experience with sanitation and security workers working alongside students to successfully improve their working conditions in 2006~2008. He mentioned that the experience of the worker-student solidarity brought change to students as well as workers and made the students think about their lives as future laborers and throw themselves into practice for  social and labor problems in and out of university.”


Hwang Soon-sik, member of the Gwacheon city council pointed out that “The Ceiling Labor-Cost System wherein the directly managed labor is included into the cost of labor but the same indirectly managed labor is not contained in it, is a contradiction” and “The government’s way of thinking and policy direction of not cutting down tax waste such as large civil engineering construction but trying to curtail the cost of labor should be changed.”


In addition, an actress and talent Kim Yeo-jin called a “Twitter keeper for the cleaning workers of Hongik University” visiting a sit-in site of the cleaning workers of Hongik University and posting the news on Twitter, Park Won-suk(the cooperative executive director of the PSPD), Kwon Yong-guk(the labor chairman of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society), Yoo In-duk(the human rights policy director of the National Human Rights Commission), Hwang Soon-sik(A deputy chairman of Gwacheon city council, the Progressive Party) and Han Won-soon(the cleaning worker of Duksung Women’s University) also took part in the symposium today.


Lee Sang-sun further pointed out that universities will teach liberty, justice and truth in lecture halls but offer poor working conditions and unstable employment to their irregular workers. He purported that what sanitation workers need is not sympathy but recognition of the structural causes of their plight in order to unite people around raising the issue together.


Kim Sung-woo, Yonsei University student, who participated as a speaker, spoke of his experience with sanitation and security workers working alongside students to successfully improve their working conditions in 2006~2008. He mentioned that the experience of the worker-student solidarity brought change to students as well as workers and made the students think about their lives as future laborers and throw themselves into practice for  social and labor problems in and out of university.”


Hwang Soon-sik, member of the Gwacheon city council pointed out that “The Ceiling Labor-Cost System wherein the directly managed labor is included into the cost of labor but the same indirectly managed labor is not contained in it, is a contradiction” and “The government’s way of thinking and policy direction of not cutting down tax waste such as large civil engineering construction but trying to curtail the cost of labor should be changed.”


In addition, an actress and talent Kim Yeo-jin called a “Twitter keeper for the cleaning workers of Hongik University” visiting a sit-in site of the cleaning workers of Hongik University and posting the news on Twitter, Park Won-suk(the cooperative executive director of the PSPD), Kwon Yong-guk(the labor chairman of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society), Yoo In-duk(the human rights policy director of the National Human Rights Commission), Hwang Soon-sik(A deputy chairman of Gwacheon city council, the Progressive Party) and Han Won-soon(the cleaning worker of Duksung Women’s University) also took part in the symposium today.




translated by volunteer Kim Jiyeon
reviewed by volunteer Thomas Cowan
*You can be a volunteer for PSPD. (t3@pspd.org)


 

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