Seven months after South Korea's revised labor union law took effect, the first and second collective agreements between prime contractors and subcontracted workers' unions in the public sector were signed on the same day. But most of the roughly 60 agencies that have received bargaining demands have yet to reach common ground.
The Korea Customs Service and the Hanmaum Labor Union, which represents workers at its service contractors, concluded bargaining and signed a collective agreement on the 23rd, according to the Ministry of Employment and Labor. It is the first such deal at a central government agency. Including Busan Transportation Corp., which also settled the same day, the public sector has now produced two prime-contractor agreements since the revised law took effect.
In the early stages of the revised law, bargaining was expected to move faster in the public sector than in the private sector, as the government has positioned itself as a model employer for public institutions.
Progress on the ground has been slow. Prime contractors and subcontracted labor and management remain at odds over how far a prime contractor's status as an employer extends and who holds authority over budget allocations. Among central government agencies, three have yet to wrap up talks: the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the National Tax Service, and the Korea Post under the Ministry of Science and ICT.
The picture is similar at public institutions. Of the 65 prime-contractor agencies that received bargaining demands, only 54 have begun the process. All of them remain at the working-level bargaining stage, except Busan Transportation Corp., which reached a deal. Two of the agencies have moved toward strike procedures after failing to narrow gaps between labor and management.
"We will make active efforts to ensure that bargaining agendas are coordinated smoothly through dialogue between prime and subcontracted labor and management," the labor ministry said. "We will spare no field support to keep conflicts over agenda coordination from spreading across the entire public sector."