Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Non-Regular Workers

I've been following this recent bill on extending the period that firms can keep workers as temporary workers to three years -- for those of you unfamiliar with the term, these workers are also called irregular, contingent, or casual workers, depending on what country you are in. Justifiably the KCTU and other civil society groups have concerns that such a bill will only polarize the workforce by occupational status, and there is a good chance of this as so far irregular workers in South Korea have been working more hours for less pay than regular workers, and their struggle to unionize or convert their status has been quite desperate. You may remember the rash of protest-suicides that occured in 2003 over the penalties irregular union leader faced for trying unionize their workplaces. Anyways, it seems the bill will be muted or toned down in the national assembly. Here is a link to the KOILAF article on the issue.

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