Thousands Rally in Central Seoul for Direct Bargaining With Lead Contractors

Thousands of public service and transport workers rallied in central Seoul on Saturday, pressing government bodies and lead contractors to engage in substantive bargaining over employment conditions, staffing and workplace safety.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions’ Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union held what it called an Oct. 24 general mobilization rally on Sejong-daero near Sungnyemun. An unofficial police estimate put attendance at about 4,200 people. Participants carried placards and chanted for effective government-labor negotiations and direct talks with the principal companies or institutions that control working conditions.

Union chair Eom Gil-yong argued that recent changes associated with the so-called Yellow Envelope law had not delivered the bargaining access workers expected. He said lead contractors continued to deny that they qualified as employers and often refused talks. Even when negotiations opened, he said, responsibility was sometimes shifted back to subcontractors on the grounds that the issues were for those companies to decide.

The dispute centers on whether workers employed through contractors can negotiate with the organizations that exercise decisive influence over their pay, staffing and conditions. The union is seeking talks without narrow limits on the subjects that may be raised. It also called for the withdrawal of enforcement rules and interpretive guidance that it says obstruct negotiations with lead contractors.

Railway union chair Kang Cheol told the gathering that affiliates had requested bargaining with lead contractors at 70 workplaces, but talks had opened at only 18. The figure was presented by the union as evidence that formal legal changes have not yet translated into broad access to negotiations.

The rally followed the union’s declaration of a week of collective action on Oct. 19. In a resolution adopted at Saturday’s event, participants pledged to continue campaigning for institutionalized government-labor dialogue and unrestricted bargaining with principal employers.

Their other demands included direct employment for work that is permanent and continuous, changes to the system that caps total personnel expenses at public institutions, and staffing rules requiring at least two people for safety-sensitive duties. The union framed those measures as necessary to improve job quality and reduce risks created by understaffing.

The weekend demonstration brought those labor demands into the center of the capital, adding pressure on public agencies and large organizations to clarify how bargaining obligations will be applied in workplaces that rely on subcontracted labor.