KTU to Government: End Attacks on Public Service Workers Union

The government is attempting to deny 700,000 workers their three fundamental labour rights.

With a move reminiscent of past dictatorships, the government of Roh Moo-hyun has disallowed members of the Public Service Workers Union (PSWU) from voting for new officials.

The KTU acted as an illegal union for ten years after it was founded in 1989. However, there was never such interference in the internal affairs of the union. If the government disallows the PSWU membership's decision to join the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, it means that the government has abandoned efforts to build more equitable relations between labour and industry. The principles of democratic decision-making processes must be recognized, even when the outcomes of these processes do not fit neatly into the government's framework for labour management.

Prime Minister Lee said that because the PSWU has refused to register as a legal entity, he can't allow its members to vote. But why doesn't the PSWU choose "legalization?"

The KTU was legalized through a special law for teachers unions. The KTU's collective bargaining agreement with the government was not enacted, however, because the KTU doesn't have the right to take collective action to enforce agreements.

This is why the PSWU refuses to choose "legalization." The bill proposed by the government limits the range of collective bargaining even more severely than the special law for teachers unions. Further, the government is depriving public servants and teachers of freedom for political activity as well as the three labour rights.

The National Human Rights Commission has recommended that education workers' freedoms for political activity should be expanded. This shows that Korea is lagging behind international standards for basic labour rights.

We urge the government to stop its anachronistic behaviour and end its suppression of the PSWU, and to pass a bill that guarantees public servants' labour rights.

2006.1.26
Korean Teachers Union

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