Labor Groups Call for Dismissal Prohibition

KCTU President Kim Myung-hwan (right) and FKTU President Kim Dong-myung (left) attend a National Assembly meeting in February this year.

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) has accepted the proposal of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) for tripartite dialogues and the two umbrella labor groups are about to be at the same negotiating table in 21 years. The KCTU held a press briefing on May 12 and re-emphasized the necessity of comprehensive employment guarantee and dismissal prohibition as preconditions for the dialogues.

The KCTU criticized the government by saying that agenda items such as employment maintenance and profit sharing were excluded from the government’s initial amendment to the Korea Development Bank Act during the National Assembly voting on April 29. “Employment maintenance in key industry companies benefiting from the bank’s financial support and profit sharing with employees after business recovery were excluded in the end and the government put conglomerates and large corporations first by doing so,” it said.
 

The KCTU welcomed the FKTU’s decision to participate in the dialogues. “As groups representing 25 million workers, we will do our utmost so that dismissal prohibition is ensured along with a certain level of income,” the KCTU remarked. The FKTU said that it shares the same stance.


The KCTU also stressed the necessity of social dialogues for mandatory employment insurance covering the entire nation. “The government’s Employment Insurance Act revision plan covers about 50,000 artists without covering more than 2.7 million special employment workers such as golf caddies and insurance planners,” it went on to say.

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