[단독] Average annual salary of 100 million… ‘God’s Workplace’ created by paratroopers

Representatives of 9280 construction companies nationwide recently submitted petitions to the Blue House, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and each political party. In the meantime,’parachute directors’ came down to the construction mutual aid association, and the petition said that it made the construction mutual aid association a’god’s workplace’ with excessive employee salary, and asked for a chairman to be elected from among the members in the future.

The Construction Mutual Aid Association was founded by construction companies in 1963, and is a private association that provides financial services such as guarantees and loans to construction companies. The current assets are 610 trillion won, sales in 2019 are 4518 billion won, and operating profit is 123 billion won. The operating margin, which is an indicator of corporate profitability, is 27%, much higher than Samsung Electronics (15%). But why did the’Chief of Parachute’ come down to this real private association, where construction companies are the owners, and how was the’God’s Workplace’ created?

In summary, from 1993 to 2015, the chairman of the Construction Mutual Aid Association was occupied by a retired official from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Six members passed from former Vice Minister Cho Deok-gyu to former Minister of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs Jeong Wan-dae. After that, in 2015, during the Park Geun-hye administration, Seung-Jun Park from Sajo Industry, a food company, was elected as the chairman. Chairman Park is known to have been recommended by Choi Seo-won (pre-named Choi Soon-sil). Currently, Chairman Young-Mook Choi served as the head of the marketing division of the Dong-A Ilbo (manager level).

The CEO of a mid-sized construction company, who requested anonymity, said, “It was difficult to object to the retirement bureaucracy from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport because construction companies have to watch the Ministry of Land’s attention a lot. The Blue House took the place twice,” he said. How good is the treatment of the Chairman of the Construction Mutual Aid Association so that it is said that it is a golden chair?

According to the results of the analysis of the construction mutual aid association’s budget and financial statements by the JoongAng Ilbo, the official annual salary of the current chairman last year was 43312 won. However, the cost of doing business without specifying the place of use is much higher than the annual salary. By category, external business expenses are KRW 15.6 million, business promotion expenses are 68.16 million KRW, and congratulations and condolence expenses are 20.78 million KRW. In addition, there are 392.56 million won in common work promotion expenses that executives can use, and it is known that more than half of this is spent by the chairman. In total, it is over 800 million won.

Another representative of the construction company said, “Because of the chairman of the parachute, the salaries and welfare of employees of the Construction Mutual Aid Association have become unmatched in Korea.” “I’ve been watching for the past 30 years, and whenever the chairman of Parachute takes office, the construction Mutual Aid Union always struggled to’stop going to work’, and since then, as a condition for accepting a new chairman, it has raised wages through a labor union.”

Actually, the annual salary and welfare of the employees of the Construction Mutual Aid Association is at the level of a’super special job of trust. According to the Construction Mutual Aid Association budget document, the average annual salary of the Construction Mutual Aid Association employees (464 regular employees) this year is estimated to be 142.6 million won. As of 2019, when the settlement of accounts was closed, 9 financial public corporations such as the Korea Development Bank, which are called’workplaces of the aid god’, are worth 129.87 million won. It is 40% higher than the average of the Fund, Deposit Insurance Corporation, Korea Trade Insurance Corporation, Housing and Urban Guarantee Corporation, and Construction Workers’ Mutual Aid Association (93.29 million won/2019 settlement report).

Regarding this, Kim Hyun-jeong, head of the Construction Mutual Aid Association, said, “This year’s employee’s annual salary is 142.6 million won based on the budget, and the actual execution may be less.” “It should be excluded from the calculation of employee salaries.” However, as a result of analyzing the construction Mutual Aid Association’s 2019 budget and financial statements, the execution rate (the ratio of actual money spent to the budget) was 105%, which was paid more than planned.

In addition to regular bonuses, employees of the Construction Mutual Aid Association receive money for various purposes. It is difficult to list all the items such as children’s college entrance exam, promotion celebration, winter support, residential subsidy, resort operation expenses, seasonal camp expenses for children, prenatal and postpartum allowances, holiday homecoming expenses, clothing expenses, and education training expenses. School expenses for employees’ children are fully supported to the university, and overseas branch employees receive 40 million won each year for each child.

In addition, two tennis courts on the first floor of the Construction Hall in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, and an outdoor golf practice range on the roof of the building are also welfare facilities for employees of the Construction Mutual Aid Association. An employee of a general company who moved into the construction hall building complained, “It would be nice to open some of the tennis courts on the yolk of Gangnam to nearby residents and building tenants, but only the employees of the Mutual Aid Hall will monopolize them.”

As such complaints from construction companies about the construction mutual aid association continued, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which is the main ministry, recently decided to change the operation method of the construction mutual aid association. It was decided to reduce the business promotion cost from 0.3% of last year’s sales to 0.25% of sales by 2025, and reduce the current 39 branches to 7 headquarters and 3 branches by next year.

An employee of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in charge of the task said, “It seems to be an extreme case of the’agent problem’ that occurs when the agent (construction mutual aid association) pursues his own interests rather than the interests of the owner (construction company).” I will fix it so that the union can operate reasonably.” The Construction Mutual Aid Association is a private association, but it is managed and supervised by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport because it does financial business. This is because if the union becomes insolvent, public funds must be put in.

Reporter Ham Jong-sun [email protected]