"Workers say law to protect backfired"

Cheon Ok-ja, Former Janitor

Gyeonggi Girls' High School in Seoul

(Image from JoongAng Daily [NEWSIS])

Yes, it did backfire. Everyone who had any sense knew that it would backfire. I knew as soon as I heard about the law that my job at Korea University would be lost if the law were passed.

What law?

I don't know its official title, but it's the non-regular workers' law passed by the Korean National Assembly last November. I first heard about the law over a year ago, when it was still being formulated and hammered out by a committee.

Like many such labor laws, it had an ostensibly good intention, as noted by Kim Soe-jung in the JungAng Daily's Saturday edition:

Under the law passed by the National Assembly in November last year, employers have to permanently hire contract employees who work for more than two consecutive years. Besides giving them job stability, the new law prohibits employers from discriminating against non-regular employees if they do the same or comparable work as regular employees.

Sounds good? Maybe. Of course, it would make the labor market inflexible if it succeeded, but anbody who reads carefully can see that such a law would never achieve its aim. Employers need merely refuse to renew a contract after two consecutive years.

Or some similar method.

According to "Ryu Chung-ryeul, an official in the National Public Service Trade Union, which represents 'non-regular' workers in schools," the law isn't working because employers:

"use diverse tactics to circumvent the new law, such as ending their contracts with temporary workers, cutting the workers' working hours so that they would not be protected by the new law and hiring workers through a staffing agency."

All completely legal means to avoid complying with the law.

There are some sad stories as individuals who had held jobs for several years. Consider Cheon Ok-ja, whose photo appears above:

Cheon Ok-ja, a middle-aged woman who used to work as a janitor at Gyeonggi Girls' High School in southern Seoul, sobbed and wiped away tears as she told her story. Ms. Cheon refused to accept the school's order to change her status from a contract worker to a "dispatched worker" hired by a staffing agency, and was fired after working 22 years at the school.

Twenty-two years of a stable job ruined by a stupid law.

Another worker who has lost his job is 47-year-old Park Ho-jun, who until a month ago "was a dormitory superintendent at Chungju National University in North Chungcheong province." Now, he is out of a job and has some harsh word about the law intended to help:

"The non-regular workers' law is not a protection law but an evil law, handing down death sentences to temporary workers," blasted Mr. Park. On Feb. 28, his contract with the university ended for good. Mr. Park began working at the college as a security guard in 2001, dispatched by a staffing agency. He got the position at the dormitory in 2005 on a contract basis with the school.

"The school has never fired a contract worker as far as I know. The law is the only reason I got fired. The school was terrified because under the law, it [now will have to] permanently hire contract workers who have worked more than two years," said Mr. Park.

I had predicted these consequences. A few weeks ago, my wife was already telling me about articles in the Korean-language newspapers confirming my prediction.

Which proves one thing.

The non-regular workers' law isn't working, but the law of unintended consequences is working just fine.