Do you watch the TV drama 'Sin-ib sawon'? As a comic drama, the production purpose of this popular drama is to satirize the difficult of finding employment these days. The content of the satire is related the non-regular workers. MBC (Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation) set up that the job of the heroine is a non-regular worker, and criticize the oppression of big companies. What happened to non-regular jobs?
Korea approached the crisis of exchange in 1997. After, then it is progressed that the organization mediation of companies with the serious change of work legislation, such as the permission of the arrangement dismissal and the enactment of the dispatch law etc. As a result, non-regular jobs occupied 53% of all workers and the variety non-regular employment form is wide.
As university students faced with the employment problem, we must look into non-regular jobs in detail by searching about the notion and form of non-regular job and the damage to non-regular workers, etc.
**The notion of non-regular job
In the early period research of Korea, time-employment workers, indirect-employment workers, special-employment workers and small-scale establishment workers were terms used to refer to non-regular workers. Now the notion of non-regular worker is defined with a variety of meanings.
**The form of non-regular jobs
The notion of non-regular job is divided into 4 parts : time-employment worker, indirect-employment worker, special-employment worker and small-scale establishment worker. We need to search about these four forms of non-regular jobs to know about non-regular jobs in detail.
(1). The time-employment worker
The workers of a temporary job, contract job, daily job and side job belong to the time-employment worker. They are contracted for periods of 3 months, 6 months and 11 months. However, they worked jobs for a long time. If the employer refuses to renew the contract, the time-employment workers are fired by the employer any time. Nowadays, moreover, companies refuse a recontract to avoid the legal problems and employ other contract job workers.
(2). The indirect-employment worker
The workers that dispatch, subcontract within the firm, equipment management and undertaking, belong to the indirect-employment worker. They work illegally. Therefore, the government can not grasp the scale of indirect-employment. The number of indirect-employment workers is assumed to be nearly one million persons.
(3). The special-employment worker
The special-employment workers are not recognized as workers according to labor law. Therefore, they are not protected by the labor standard law, labor union law and social insurance law.
(4). The small-scale establishment worker
The small-scale establishment workers fall under the labor standard law partly and are very unstable in terms of the pay level and employment conditions. Therefore, they are classified non-regular job. Nowadays, they are active in creating region labor unions which struggle for guarantees of labor standard law.
**What is the problem with non-regular jobs?
The problem with non-regular jobs is not problem about “discrimination and poverty.” Nowadays, big companies want non-regular workers rather than regular worker because non-regular workers are payed less than regular workers. In other words, non-regular jobs destroy the job market. It is a very serious problem. Which can't be solved easily, because the government need to ensure the management environment of companies and to protect the rights and interests of workers.
**The damage of non-regular workers
Non-regular workers suffer from the oppression of big companies in several ways.
The first damage is an inferior work environment. They sometimes work in jobs that risked their life. Nowadays, the rate of workmen's accident in Korea increase steadily. The second damage is low pay. They work hard because they want to live in affluence, but they always live a difficult life. They have rights to live a human life. The final damage is that they have not the rights of workers. In others words, the three major labor legislations are "a pie in the sky" to non-regular workers.
**An example of the damage of non-regular workers
If you are a Chung-Ang university student, you have ridden the first village bus. Nowadays, the poster is stuck on the door of the first village bus. Looking at the contents, bus drivers want the higher wages and an agreeable job. However, the president of the company, Chung-Ang traffic that runs village buses ignore the opinion of bus drivers and turn away the bus drivers that demanded better work conditions. Therefore, they established a labor union and went on strike. As a result, they accomplished their purposes. However, the problem did not stop. Other problems occurred in the labor union. The problems related first village bus are not solved yet. The concern of students will solve these problems.
**Conclusion
For their life non-regular workers want equal and healthy working rights and the companies' responsible behavior. According to the demands of non-regular workers, the government prepared a protect law for non-regular workers. This law has a good name. However, essential contents are temporizing about the fundamental problems. This behavior of the government destroys non-regular workers' life twice. They only want the government to guarantee their human life. Korea did not become a welfare state like Sweden and Denmark. However, Korea can become a similar phase as welfare state. Therefore, the government have to accepts the demands of non-regular workers and have to prepare a new protect law. As a result, the government have to make Korea, a country where everybody lives together.
By Kim Chul-hwan
Social & Political reporter