A growing number of undergraduates are taking part-time jobs. Part-time workers are currently estimated at over 2 million. Alba Heaven, an employment site specializing in part-time and hourly jobs, said 50.2 percent of applicants work part-time to make personal expenses and 38.3 percent of them do it for tuition as a necessity.
Some of them have been troubled with poor working conditions. Actually, it has been an open and well-discussed secret among students, but society does not view their problems as serious. The 237th edition of The Chungdae Post will highlight this unsolved problem.
Kim Hye-in, a 21-year-old university student, is working at a convenience store in Daejon. For her 10-hour workday from 10 p.m to 8 a.m, the store owner paid her only 3,500 won per hour. It is far lower than the legal minimum wage, but she has no choice but to have part-time job to satisfy her tuition costs.
Like Hye-in, many university students work part-time at convenience stores to earn part of their tuition fees, but the vast majority of them are being paid below 4,320 won, the minimum wage set by law. There are no official statistics on the number of part-time convenience store employees, but industry watchers estimate the figure at some 50,000 at 17,000 stores nationwide. A recent survey conducted by the Youth Community Union on 444 part-time employees at 427 convenience stores showed that only 34% of the respondents were paid 4,320 won per hour last year, the legal minimum wage. The largest number of respondents, 39%, said they received between 3,000 won and 4,000 won, while another 23% got between 4,000 won and 4,320 won.
Convenience store chains say they encourage individual store owners to keep the minimum wage regulation, but it is not compulsory, only a recommendation. They say hiring part-time employees is in the hands of each store's owner. Employers violating the regulation are subject to up to three years in jail or a 20 million won fine, but employees usually don't ask store owners for a pay raise nor report the violation to labor authorities for fear of dismissal. Even though, the Minimum Wage Council comprised of the government, labor and management agreed to raise the country's minimum wage 6% to 4,580 won an hour next year, it is expected that workers at convenience stores will continue to receive wages below the legal minimum.
In February, Domino's Pizza Korea scrapped the 30-minute delivery promise amid growing public criticism that the policy has put delivery drivers' lives at risks. Civic groups demanded the company put an end to the rule; threatening to launch boycott against Domino's Pizza, if they were not heard.
However, it is not just a problem of Domino's Pizza. Speed is everything for fastfood delivery. To deliver pizza, chicken, or Chinese food as fast as possible, they ride their motorbikes recklessly, often risking their lives. A 24-year-old Pizza Hut employee was in a head-on collision with a taxi in Seoul last year. On February, a delivery man was also killed after being hit by a bus that ran the lights in Seoul. The rider took off in such a hurry, he didn't check oncoming traffic.
Those who deliver usually earn 4,300-4,500 won per hour and 400 won for each delivery. The delivery men rarely demand compensation for industrial accidents even though they occur during work. That's because the owners don't want to compensate them for industrial accident and oppose them joining a delivery workers' union.
Problems have also risen also employers. Kim Ah-reum, a 22-year-o1d university student, had unrighteous experiences while working at a bakery near Chungnam National University last summer. "I had been frequently threatened and abused by the owner during work hours. Since I was afraid I would be dismissed from the business, I couldn't ask for anything from the shopkeeper." she said. Shin Young-hoon, a 24-year-old university student, was an instructor at an English Language Institute on April, but he was paid 5 weeks later. He said, "I demanded the employer pay the correct wage, but he just repeated that salary would be paid soon. Getting into an argument with him, I could get it finally." There are also those who experienced some form of sexual harassment in the workplace, too.
Albamon, an employment site specializing in part-time and hourly jobs, reports 56.1 percent of respondents were treated unfairly. Yet, only 20 percent of them tried to solve the problem potently. "Being plunged into recession, many employees tend to avoid conflict with an employer," Lee Young-geol, a director of Albamon, said. Part-time workers have the same statutory employment rights as any other employees according to Labor Standards Act. People might be interested in looking at some articles which are related to part-time workers.
LABOR STANDARDS ACT CHAPTER 2. LABOR CONTRACTS
An employer shall clearly state wages, work hours, other working conditions to the relevant workers at the time when he enters into a labor contract with them. in this case, the matters concerning constituent items, calculation methods and payment methods of wages shall be specified in accordance with the methods prescribed by the Presidential Decree.
Article 25 (Working Conditions of Part-Time Workers)
(1) Working conditions of part-time workers shall be determined on the basis of relative ratio computed in comparison of chose work hours with those of full-time workers engaged in the same kind of work at the pertinent workplace.
(2) The criteria other matters to be considered for the determination of working conditions under paragraph (1) shall be prescribed by the Presidential Decree.
(3) With respect to part-time workers with considerably short contractual work hours who are specified by the Presidential Decree, some provisions of this Act may not apply as prescribed by the Presidential Decree.
Article 26 (Violation of Working Conditions)
(1) When any of the working conditions as expressly set forth in Article 24 is found to be inconsistent with the actual working conditions, the worker concerned shall be entitled to claim damages on the ground of the breach of the working conditions, or may immediately terminate the labor contract forthwith.
(2) When a worker intends to claim damages in accordance with paragraph (1), he may file a request with the Labor Relations Commission, and if a labor contract has been terminated, the employer concerned shall provide travel expenses for returning home to the worker who changes his residence for the purpose of taking up a new job.
The mindset of government, corporations, and labor should be changed.
Part-time workers need to get away from the idea that part-time work is, both separate from and inferior to, full-time work. If a employer is in violation, one should call the center operated by The Ministry of Labor at ☎1350. If part-time workers fail to do so, the number of those who are unable to pull themselves out of abusive part-time work situations will not decrease. The government, corporations, and labor need to change. They should recognize the reality that part-time work is not, as it was previously, something students do for a short period of time to earn spending money, but rather an ordinary form of labor. Unless we elicit motivation to the present abuse of pan-time employees, things will get worse.
By Kim Rang Editor-in-chief
diana@cnu.ac.kr