|
Temporary Workers and the Korean church
One of the key issues in the Korean society is “economic justice” as the gap between the rich and the poor keeps growing. The economic justice issue is directly related to temporary workers’ human rights because they face a great deal of social polarization and inequality in the society. South Korea has one of the highest rates of temporary employment among members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), at 35.5% of the total workforce compared with the OECD average of 25%. But labor NGOs say that the rate of temporary workers now reaches up to 50 per cent. Temporary workers are usually hired for less than a year and paid about 50 per cent less with no welfare benefits. Due to the short contract year, they have to always worry about job security. But the companies prefer to hire temporary workers, who are paid less and are easier to terminate than regular workers.
On July 14 the NCCK held a workshop to address the human rights of temporary workers and to articulate its theological reflection on the issue of temporary employment.
The first speaker, Dr. Yoo Kyung Dong said, “Human labor in the Bible is a responsibility as well as a blessing of God.” He also stressed that temporary employment in Korean society is a deteriorated form of labor which violates the labor rights given by God. In conclusion, he urged the Korean church to reflect on the labor rights with deeper theological insight and to work actively to protect those rights.
The second speaker, Rev. Choi Hyung Mook talked about labor, ownership, and management. He spelled out that labor rights is one of the basic rights of every human being which should not be restricted by the possessive rights. He emphasized that we cannot find in the Bible this present form of exclusive ownership: Lev. 25 says that the land is God’s and we are just foreigners and strangers. Furthermore, he added, “in the Bible the possessive rights are allowed with restriction, but even in this case the possessive rights must be exercised to protect the rights of the marginalized and to sustain the community,” and “the management rights must also be exercised for the good of community.” Therefore, he concluded, the church must monitor and challenge the excessive rights of capital over ownership and management.
The third speaker, Dr. Kim Yoo Sun analyzed the present situation of the labor market in Korea in comparison with the global labor market. He stressed that “the rate of the long-term (more than 10 years) employed ranks last among OECD at 18.1% as of 2011, and this shows the instability of the labor market.” He further argued that temporary employment is the key problem in the instability of the Korean labor market. He insisted that, “if the enormous amount of reserves (about $ 500 billion) kept by the 10 conglomerates were used to reform the labor market, most problems arising from temporary employment could be resolved.”
The NCCK will soon launch the “Korean Church’s Solidarity for Temporary Workers” to address economic justice issues in general but also the temporary employment issue in particular.
| 
