The ruling Saenuri Party is planning to submit a dozen bills related to people’s livelihoods as soon as the new National Assembly begins its four-year term Wednesday.
At the top of the list, which is scheduled to be finalized at a meeting of party policymakers Tuesday, will likely be a set of measures aimed at banning discrimination against irregular workers.
Under the measures, which the ruling party wants to enact into law along with other priority bills within the first 100 days of the new parliament, companies are required to provide part-timers, temporary and other non-regular workers with the same financial and other benefits given to regular employees.
They also call for better labor conditions for subcontract workers.
Such focus on non-regular workers’ treatment may be overdue, as they take up an ever-increasing proportion of the employed labor force but have much lower wages than regular employees.
Strengthening support for irregular workers could be one of the effective ways to narrow the income gap between rich and poor, which may be getting to the point of hurting social stability if left unchecked.
According to figures released by Statistics Korea last week, the number of irregular workers increased by 0.7 percent from a year earlier to about 5.8 million in March, accounting for more than a third of wage laborers.
The number of part-timers, in particular, rose by 11.1 percent over the cited period to 1.7 million.
Irregular workers were paid an average of 1.43 million won a month during the first quarter of the year, compared to 2.45 million won for regular staff. The proportion of non-regular employees entitled to receive severance pay or bonuses stood at around 40 percent, less than half the level of regular workers.
Leading the increase in irregular jobs were those aged 40 or above and women.
For the year until last March, the number of irregular workers in their 60s increased by 9.8 percent, compared to 3.6 percent for 50-somethings and 1.6 percent for 40-somethings.
Women employed on a non-regular basis rose by 3.3 percent or 98,000 over the same period, while irregular male workers fell by 2.2 percent or 60,000.
These figures show that a growing number of retirees and women who quit the workforce after marriage are seeking reemployment, mostly landing irregular jobs.
Better treatment of irregular workers would help them support their families, bringing in the effect of further tightening the social safety net.
What is worrisome is the possibility that the ruling party’s measures might lead to companies slashing irregular jobs to reduce additional labor costs. Party and government policymakers are required to work out methods to keep employers from cutting their payrolls, with companies also urged to make efforts to retain and hopefully increase jobs.
What should also draw our attention is the ever-increasing proportion of college graduates as non-regular employees.
The number of irregular workers with diplomas from colleges or other institutions of higher learning climbed by 4.5 percent from a year earlier to a record high of 1.9 million in March, accounting for a third of the non-regular labor force.
This raises the need to create more decent work for highly educated people and restructure the education system to match the actual corporate demand for labor.
