A wave of repression hits trade unions that saved workers’ health

Cheonghee Yu

Korean Institute of Labor Safety and Health

2023

There are many places in the world where there are precarious workers whose employment is unstable and who are unsure of tomorrow’s work. Trade unions have been organized in such places to fight for elimination of this insecurity and illegal employment.

But the South Korean government’s repression against those who have fought back has been intense. On May Day 2023, the late Yang Hoe-dong, a construction worker who fought for the employment of union members, took his own life, criticizing the government for criminalizing his activities. The government refuses to look at the wages and workplace safety that unions have worked to improve, the irresponsible behavior of employers, or the complexity of employment relationships. Instead, it focuses on criminalizing unions as illegal organizations.

With labor relations fragmented and employer accountability a challenge, it is time to pay more attention to unions’ struggles to eliminate precariousness and defend workers’ health rights.

Worksites where there are workers but no employers

The current definition of “worker” in the Labor Standards Act and the Labor Union Act does not cover workers in a variety employment relationships. Instead of including and protecting them, the government is pushing them out of the system, claiming that they are “autonomous.”

Prior to 1997, most of the freight drivers who are currently defined as “self-employed” were full-time workers directly employed by the transportation companies. Since then, they have been classified as sole proprietors,^[1] and their labor unions are not recognized.

In addition, the multi-level and illegal intervention of agents and brokers between shippers, carriers, and freight forwarders has led to a significant reduction in drivers’ wages. The pressure of cuts in freight rates under the commission-per-shipment system was passed on to the lowest-level truck drivers, who were forced to work extremely long hours to make up the difference.

Most construction workers work as day laborers. Many workers who operate construction machinery such as dump trucks and ready-mixed concrete are specialty workers. In addition, many construction workers in illegal multi-level subcontracting structures have been subjected to job insecurity, are underpaid, and forced to work intensely. The real employer responsible for their wages and employment was invisible.

There is a growing number of specially hired workers, who are contracted in a way that is “different” from traditional employer-employee relationships, and platform workers, who work through platforms that act as intermediaries. To varying degrees, they work under the supervision and direction of the employer, but are not considered workers under the Labor Standards Act, and working hour regulations do not apply to them.

Courier companies such as CJ Logistics and platform companies such as Baemin (meaning delivery nation) have determined the wages and employment of workers, but have refused to negotiate with unions or have shown a passive attitude towards negotiations, claiming that they are not employers.

Where there is job insecurity, there is no worker health

Under a low-wage system of multi-level subcontracting and pay-per-call commission-based work, truck drivers have been working 14 hours a day or more for years. They have been forced to work themselves to death on the road by overloading and speeding, which in turn threatens the safety of other people on the road. In 2016, the number of fatalities from truck accidents was 212 with 255 in 2017 and 251 in 2018.^[2] Many truckers were dying from accidents and diseases, but until 2020, they were not allowed to apply for workers’ compensation.

The construction industry employs around 2.1 million workers, or 7.6% of the country’s 28 million workers. However, the number of workplace fatalities in the construction industry is high, with 400 to 500 deaths per year, accounting for half of all workplace fatalities (according to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, there were 874 workplace fatalities in 2022, of which 402 were in the construction industry). In a time of precarious employment, when securing tomorrow’s job is so important, how can individual workers say they will not work on an unsafe job site?

Courier delivery workers, who were used to typically working a 60-hour workweek, have suffered mass overwork deaths during the coronavirus pandemic. Delivery workers riding motorcycles have also been in accidents, often running red lights and overworking themselves to deliver food within the expected time frame.

Many workers who are not technically “laborers” pay out of pocket for gas, car payments, equipment purchases, and repairs. Only after these costs are deducted do they get paid. In logistics, construction, courier and motorcycle delivery work, overwork is the default condition when the company does not cover all costs. In a workplace where the employer is not responsible, workers are working at the expense of their health, following the expectation made by the company that they can earn more money if they work more.

While employers avoid responsibility, unions take care of safety

In a world where no one else is responsible for their stable employment or creating safe workplaces, it is the labor unions that have been responsible for their safety. Unions have been fighting for the expansion of workers’ compensation applications and coverage, which has resulted in the gradual expansion of occupations covered by workers’ compensation, and the abolition of the “exclusivity requirement” – the requirement that workers work for only one company – as of July 1, 2023.

In order to save the lives of freight workers who have been overworked on the road or lost their lives in accidents due to long hours of driving, The Korean Public Service and Transport Workers – TruckSol union and others have long called for the introduction of a safe fare system.^[3] After efforts from all sides, the safe fare system was introduced in March 2018. At the time, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport pointed to the high fatal accident rate of freight vehicles and explained that the safe freight system was introduced to improve the driving environment due to low freight rates.^[4] The safe freight rate system was implemented on a temporary basis for three years from January 2020 for two items: containers and cement. However, the system was not extended and finally sunsetted at the end of December 2022.

Construction unions have taken it upon themselves to secure and stabilize the jobs of precarious construction workers. The unions have identified employers in illegal multi-level subcontracting and have been collectively bargaining with employer organizations such as the Rebar Concrete Employers’ Association of Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon since 2017. The wage and collective agreements have established paid holidays, an eight-hour workday during the week and a shortened workday on Saturday, and overtime pay.^[5]

They have also fought for the recognition of occupational diseases such as leukemia and musculoskeletal diseases among power distribution workers, secured the right to stop hazardous work (the right to stop work), and worked to improve the right to health by installing restrooms at construction sites.

While these diseases and accidents are serious, the problem of concealing industrial accidents at construction sites has been a serious problem. It was the labor unions that exposed and worked to prevent occupational accidents. However, the government’s recent crackdown on construction unions has made it difficult to prevent the concealment of occupational accidents, and the employment of construction union members has become more precarious. The right to health, which unions have laid the groundwork for, is in danger of going back to the past.

The ‘Safe Delivery’ experiment showed that if motorcycle delivery workers follow traffic laws they earn nearly 7,000 won (~USD$5.25) less in hourly wages. Based on this, truck workers are demanding a “safe delivery fee” to ensure a decent income without violating traffic laws, similar to the safe fare system for freight truck workers. None of these improvements in working conditions, including health rights, have come naturally. In the absence of a governmental system to protect workers’ health and in the face of employers’ neglect of their responsibilities, labor unions have been the ones to protect workers’ health.

Did they deserve to be oppressed?

According to a report submitted to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport by the Korea Transportation Research Institute, truck drivers in the cement and import/export container sectors have seen an increase in earnings and a decrease in working hours since the implementation of the safe freight system. In addition, in the cement sector, shippers, drivers, and borrowers all reported an improvement in overloading.^[6]

In June 2022, after the first general strike, the government agreed to discuss the continuation and expansion of the safe freight system, but by the end of the year, it reneged on its promise. Instead, it cracked down on the second general strike, labeling it “illegal” and issuing two ‘business start’ orders.

In the ongoing crackdown on trade unions, including massive audits and raids, the construction unions have been the most severely repressed. Companies have put workers at risk through illegal multi-level subcontracting, and the government has chosen to repress them rather than improve conditions.

Unions have filled the void left by companies in terms of job security and workers’ health rights. With unions under attack for fighting for the labor rights of all workers in long-standing unstable sectors and in a variety of labor relationships that the law does not cover, companies will continue to attack the more vulnerable.

Words like “hwapok” (trucker gangsters) and “gunpok” (construction gangsters) make it seem like the stigmatization is happening as if it is just a problem of a small segment of the labor movement. But the current repression is an attempt to divide workers, and it is an attack on all workers. That is why we need to fight for labor rights for all workers together now.

^[1] In a sole proprietor system, you register your personally owned vehicle with a transportation company and get paid for doing work for them. While they appear to work autonomously, they are dependent on the actual carrier because they receive instructions from it.

^[2] Donga Ilbo (2019) 51% of highway deaths attributed to ‘cargo vehicles’… 무리한 야간운전 ‘화’ 부른다”, 2019.8.16. https://www.donga.com/news/Economy/article/ all/20190816/96986741/1

^[3] The Safe Fare System for Freight Vehicles is a system that determines and announces the minimum fare required to prevent overwork, speeding, and overloading and to secure traffic safety. Just like the minimum wage, the law sets the appropriate transportation fee to protect the rights of freight workers and provide road safety.

^[4] An GH (2022) The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport changes its mind after 3 years on the effectiveness of the safe fare system, Kyunghyang Shinmun, 2022.12.05
https://www.khan.co.kr/national/national-general/article/202212050754001

^[5] Negotiations between the provincial construction union and employers’ organizations were set to begin in 2023, although government crackdowns have delayed the talks. Korean Construction Workers’ Union (2023) Conducted the first round of negotiations with the civil engineering and construction branch of the construction union in 2023, 2023.06.13, 건설노동조합, https://www.kcwu.or.kr/news/75448

^[6] Seong H (2022) Analyzing the performance of the Safe Freight Program and how to activate it, Debate on Performance Evaluation of a Safe Freight System for Freight Vehicles