Promotion of direct hiring of 134 call center counselors from 3 organizations under the Seoul Metropolitan Government
Seoul Transportation Corporation’s confrontational conflict intensifies
“You want to take employees of private companies and make construction employees? So, shouldn’t we have to hire directly from Seoul City?”
Seoul Transportation Corporation, SH Corporation, Credit Guarantee Foundation, and other subsidiaries in Seoul are facing controversy over the problem of direct employment of call center counselors. It is a shape that leads to a’no-no conflict’, as the KTO’s regular labor union protested against the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s recommendation to directly hire employees of private consignment companies. It is pointed out that the’regularization of non-regular workers’ policy pushed by the Moon Jae-in administration is growing’seeds of conflict’ in various places in society, following Incheon International Airport Corporation and National Health Insurance Corporation.
Full-time union “Opposition to direct employment of privately entrusted workers”
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Seoul Transportation Corporation on the 3rd, the Seoul Transportation Corporation integrated labor union started a one-man demonstration in front of the Seoul City Hall and the Seoul City Council from the 1st. This is to protest the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s recommendation that the KTO directly hire 39 call center workers who work for KTcs, a private consignment company.
“If the logic is to hire full-time workers from private companies because they are in charge of consignment work, employees should also be hired as public officials in Seoul. I don’t even do it.”
Since 2012, the city of Seoul has converted 1377 fixed-term workers working in the city and affiliated offices into non-permanent contract workers, while changing 2,737 non-permanent contract workers to general workers. This year, we are promoting direct employment of privately entrusted workers. The targets were 134 call center counselors from three call centers, including SH Corporation, Seoul Transportation Corporation, and Korea Credit Guarantee Foundation.
The city of Seoul calls this project’conversion of non-regular workers entrusted to the private sector to regular workers’, but these counselors are already regular workers belonging to private entrusted companies. It is the same structure as the employees of the National Health Insurance Corporation call center, which started the strike on the 1st. Earlier, the SH Corporation call center branch, the KCTU service union, where SH Corporation call center counselors belong, also fought homelessness in front of the city hall at the end of last year, asking for direct employment of the corporation. These are also full-time workers belonging to KTis, a private company.
There are also conflicts between unions over the direct hiring of call center employees. The integrated union under the Korean Federation of Trade Unions, the second union of the Seoul Transportation Corporation, is against direct hiring of call center employees. On the other hand, it is known that the construction labor union of the KCTU, which is the 1st union, has mixed pros and cons. This is because some of the call center workers who are requesting direct employment at the KCTU have joined the Hope Solidarity Union.
‘High Spec’ Flocks to Competition for Restaurant Cooks… Labor Policy to Raise Job Threshold
The voice of dissatisfaction among young employees is growing as the Seoul Transportation Corporation has been fighting and shaking for several years over the issue of the regularization of non-regular workers. Blinds, an anonymous bulletin board app for office workers, are posting articles about “the company is ruined due to the government’s’regularization of a craziness’.” One author criticized, “Is it makes sense to hire a call center employee who works full-time at a private company because there are not enough cafeteria and canteen employees?”
Some point out that the direct employment of public institutions in private entrusted industries is raising the threshold of jobs. According to the Seoul Transportation Corporation, as a result of publicly hiring cooks in charge of cooking and food service at the cafeteria last month, 47 of the total 53 people, including 3 masters degree holders, were college graduates. 84.9% (45 persons) of the total age of successful applicants were in their 20s and 30s. These are employees who were hired in vacant positions when some of the cooks who were converted from non-permanent contracts to general workers in 2018 left the company due to retirement, etc. A construction official explained, “Before the transition to a general job, the position that was applied by those in their 40s and 50s with no special experience has changed into a position that high-spec young people with culinary licenses covet.”
An official from an integrated union said, “The policy of regular employment of non-regular workers and direct employment of consignment industries is stealing jobs such as high school graduates and career-disrupted women.”
Reporter Park Jong-gwan [email protected]