Korea already has very high levels (more than 50%) of labour casualisation, but according to unions, recent initiatives to privatise and merge public utilities are leading to increases in this figure, a rapid rise in laid-off public employees, increased job instability and inferior working conditions for those remaining in employment. Casual workers have restricted rights to organise.
In February 2010, estimates showed that more than five million workers, or one-third of the South Korean workforce, have already been made contract workers, receiving just 60% of the average wages of permanent workers. According to the Korean unions, the new “National Employment Strategy 2020”, a government initiative to raise employment levels, includes provisions that will further deregulate private employment agencies, expand indirect employment, and increase precarious employment. 2011 figures show that the employment conditions of irregular workers are much worse than before with average pay now at almost half of those employed on regular contracts.