6

south korean team study

WOMEN LABOURERS IN KOREA

What is the big problem of the Korean Women Laborers who are being oppressed in the concrete realities of Korea? From what contradiction of our society does this problem come? And how can we solve it?

Korea has achieved a high degree of economic growth through the four economic development plans since 1962. But inside, the contradiction has been deepened and social unrest has been increasingly accelerated by the unbalanced distribution of wealth through the regional and classical income deviation.

The labor-intensive and export-first economic policy needed the labor of the poor-class women who had to work even for low wages: they could do nothing but to go to work to sustain their living. Furthermore, the business firms, taking advantage of the social climate of predominance of man over woman, have helped to intensify the severe discrimination by sex.

On the other hand, these women workers must keep on living under the patriarchal structure in which household labor is considered to be the obligation of women; a result they suffer from malnutrition and the chain of overwork from dual labor.

7

The problem of women laborers who are engaging in simple physical labor is given heavy weight in this report, compared with other women’s problems and current social problems.

ACTUAL STATE OF WOMEN LABORERS

The economic participation rate of Korean women has increased from 34% in 1963 to 47.8% in 1977. The composition ratio of women employees to all employees was 35.3% in 1969 and it was increased to 39.5% in 1977. The composition ratio of women employees to all employees was 35.3% in 1969 and it was increased to 39.5% in 1977.

In terms of the industrial composition ratio of women laborers for primary industry it was 68.7% in 1963 and 49.5% in 1976; for secondary industry it has increased from 7.0% to 21.4%; and for tertiary industry from 24.3% to 29.1%.

The composition ratio by age in 1975 was 10.7% between 15 and 19 years of age, 14.9% between 20 and 24, 8.1% between 25 and 29, 40.7% between 30 and 49, 7.6% between 50 and 54, 5.2% between 55 and 59, 4.8% between 60 and 64; i.e., the shape of the distribution shows great difference from the shape of distribution in advanced countries. In particular, the age distribution of women laborers in the manufacturing field, who are faced with seriously bad labor conditions, is 71.8% between 18-22 and only 2.9% age 31 and over.

As for the wage-level, the basic monthly pay is 31,686 won ($65.2), which is 53.4% of the 59,377 won ($122.17) basic pay for men; in terms of bonuses men get 58,300 won ($120) and women get 27,267 won ($56.10), which is only 46.8% of the men's bonus level.

The working hours per month are 233 hours for men and 238 hours for women. In terms of wage distribution, 0.78% of the total receive below 20,000 won ($41.10); 37.44% get 20,000-30,000 won ($41.10-61.70); and 9.3% receive 30,000 – 70,000 won ($102.90-144.00). Among women laborers in the manufacturing industry, 0.6% receive below 10,000 won ($20.6); 2.8% receive 10,000-12,000 won; 6.1% get 16,000-20,000 won; 25.5% get 21,000-25,000 won; 4.7% get 41,000-50,000 won; and 2.5% get 51,000 won and over. In total, 92.7% of them receive 40,000 won or below. (This year the Government has set a minimum level of wage of 26,000 won for basic pay and 4,000 won for welfare, or a total

8

of 30,000)

In terms of working hours, only 10% of the total of women laborers are working 8 hours or less per day, 43% work 6 to 10 hours, 33% work 10 to 15 hours, and 1% work over 18 hours per day.

ESSENTIAL PROBLEMS OF WOMEN LABORERS

Let’s enumerate the important problems of women laborers.

The first problem is low wages which cannot support the minimum level of life. This is also a wage discrimination problem with women's pay reaching only half that of men laborers.

The second problem is in general the terribly bad labor conditions. The women workers are suffering contamination from 'heavy respiratory diseases, auditory difficulty, etc., which arise from the long working hours (over 10 hours) and seriously bad labor environment.

Thirdly, maternity protection is being neglected. Although the maternity protection problem is an important one, not only in the individual dimension but also from the social and national viewpoint, and although there are, by law, protective regulations such as working time limit, maternity leave, physiological leave, child-care time, and prohibition of dangerous and harmful jobs, they are deprived of this priority by the current rapid industrialization policy, and are neglected realistically.

Fourth is that women laborers are being treated differentially in employment management and are in an unstable state of occupation. In other words, there are restrictions such as limit of employment opportunity, required resignation upon marriage, and early expiration of term of employment for females only; and women’s engagement in technical sorts of vocations is far behind that of men.

The fifth problem is the dual burden of vocational labor and household labor.

BACKGROUND OF WOMEN LABORERS’ PROBLEM AND CAUSE ANALYSIS

1. The labor class, being the production part of the national economy, faces a terribly bad politi-

9

cal and economic state and is being alienated because Korea is pushing the policy of rapid economic growth and a labor-intensive, export-oriented economic policy based on low wages.

2. The labor policy, supporting this economic policy, has formulated numerous legal restrictions to press the voluntary labor movement of the alienated labor class. Any kind of labor movement in foreign invested companies is unthinkable because of the Temporary Exceptive Act on the Labor Unions of Foreign Invested Firms and the Dispute Arbitration which was legislated in 1970. In fact, the labor movement was deprived of any legal guarantee, with restraint on the right of collective bargaining and the right to collective action, by the "Special Measure Act on National Security'' in 1971 and by the Management Instruction on Arbitration and the Right of Collective Bargaining under the State of National Emergency declared in 1972. And because of the denial of the industrial union system in the revision process of other labor relations laws, the expansion of the boundaries of “public interest jobs” the taking-over of the job of arbitration administrative offices, and the fact that the government did not take a positive and neutral attitude in the arbitration process between employers and employees, the interests of the laborers have been invaded even more.

3. The man-centered view of women that generalized widely the patriarchal social structure based on the Confucian tradition has given rise to severe disparity between men and women in terms of labor conditions and the human rights problems of women.

In the process of socialization of women, home and school education train a woman to be a traditional, wise mother and good wife, rather than a cultivating a sound vocational consciousness and consciousness of rights; and priority of school education is given to sons. So it is inevitable that women laborers engage in unskilled simple labor, and that the turn-over rate is high.

With such a background the women laborers themselves cannot keep a righteous mental attitude toward their occupation but rather feel a sense of shame about working. Besides, though the present government emphasizes that women laborers receiving low wages have occupied a very important part in our economic growth, by emphasizing the concepts of loyalty and filial piety, which are surrounded by the traditional “virtuous woman” and Confucian ca-

10

tegories, the dual burden of women laborers had been further strengthened and has become the great obstacle in establishing their vocational consciousness. Such a patriarcha1 woman-view justifies the discriminatory treatment by sex practiced by most business enterprises.

x x x x

From the recognition of the situation with which women laborers are faced, this article will go on to summarize future possibilities as counter measures for solving these problems. Although the fundamental solution could be achieved by the almost complete reformation of economic and social structure for which the terribly bad position of women laborers originates, that would be very difficult in practice.

Therefore, we can and should do the following in the present limited situation:

Firstly, women laborers themselves ought to be the subject of a voluntary movement. This means that women laborers must recognize their actual status and the social and economic structure producing this status, and that they must be organized and educated in order to keep alive a concrete struggle for the improvement of their position.

Secondly, it should be connected with other classes that are in accord with women laborers in the political and social interests: religious groups, general women’s movements and civil movements, etc.

Thirdly, labor relations activity should extend to the abolition and the amendment of labor relation laws.

Fourthly, to realize the above it is required that the organization of women laborers themselves be strengthened, that the activity of direction of the general women’s movement association be regulated and vitalized, and that these associations of women laborers be connected with and mutually supported by general social associations. Activities in accord with these necessities are practiced partially by U.I.M. and Christian Academy etc. And, finally, the strengthening of these activities and the additional mobilization of other social organizations is required.