Three years after President Moon Jae-in came to office, his administration had still failed to ratify core ILO Conventions 87 and 98 on freedom of association, the right to organise and collective bargaining, despite manifesto pledges. Furthermore, the administration seemed to be on the brink of further restricting the rights of both atypical workers (namely platform workers, the self-employed, freelancers, non-regular and contract workers) and informal workers.
On 13 April 2019, more than 20,000 workers took part in a rally organised by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) to demand that the government ratify ILO core conventions including Conventions 87 and 98; amend the Labour Union Act; and guarantee atypical workers basic labour rights.
In addition to existing concerns over the exclusion of workers in atypical employment relationships from basic rights protections, the serious violations of the right to strike in both the private and public sectors continued, as well as blatant government interference in eligibility for union membership and service in elected office. The Korea Employers Federation (KEF) was making their agreement to ratification of the Conventions conditional upon further restrictions, repeating its long-held argument that approving C87 and C98 would bestow excessive authority on the trade unions. The government seemed ready to adopt the employers’ proposals.
The situation did not improve, and on 16 November the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) held a massive workers’ rally in front of the National Assembly with the aim of securing fundamental workers’ rights and blocking the retrogressive revision of labour laws. About 30,000 members of the FKTU took part in the rally, which, like the KCTU, demanded the ratification of ILO core conventions, the guarantee of fundamental workers’ rights by revising of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Adjustment Act, the full implementation of a 52-hour work week system, no discrimination against irregular workers, the suspension of the negative changes to the minimum wage system, the expansion of the scope of ordinary wages, pension reforms and so on.
