The Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union, an affiliate of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, held a rally in central Seoul calling on the government and prime contractors to take part in collective bargaining. The union said prime contractors are still denying their status as employers or refusing to bargain even after the so-called Yellow Envelope Law, a revision of the Trade Union Act, took effect in March this year, and demanded that bargaining with prime contractors and bargaining between workers and the government be institutionalized.
The union held the "Oct. 24 Public Service and Transport Workers' Union General Mobilization Rally" on Sejong-daero on the 24th. With about 4,200 people attending, according to an unofficial police estimate, participants chanted slogans including "Properly guarantee labor-government and prime contractor bargaining" and "Directly hire workers in permanent and continuing jobs, expand good jobs." Eom Gil-yong, head of the union, said in an opening address that "the Yellow Envelope Law is riddled with holes and is losing its force," adding that "across both the public and private sectors, prime contractors are denying their status as employers and refusing to bargain."
Kang Cheol, head of the Korean Railway Workers' Union, said the union had demanded bargaining at 70 prime contractors but that talks had actually opened at only 18 of them. In a resolution, participants called for bargaining with prime contractors without limits on the agenda, the institutionalization of labor-government bargaining, improvements to labor cost rules and the deployment of safety staff in teams of at least two.
According to data obtained from the Ministry of Employment and Labor by the office of Rep. Kim Wi-sang of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee, 460 prime contractor workplaces had received bargaining demands from subcontractor unions as of the 1st of this month, including 261 in the private sector and 199 in the public sector. Of those, bargaining has been fully concluded at three — Hyundai Steel's Dangjin plant, Hangang EMP and the Jeju Free International City Development Center — while 142 have entered the bargaining stage. Among the 142, 81 are holding main negotiations such as introductory sessions, and 61 are at the working-level stage of coordinating agendas and schedules.