14 Airport Subsidiary Unions: "Basic Salary 1.86 Million Won Even After 10 Years... Demand Formation of Parent-Subsidiary Labor-Management Council"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Je-hoon] Labor unions of three subsidiaries under Korea Airports Corporation held a press conference on the 14th and declared a compliance struggle. They demanded, "Form a labor-management consultative body between the parent company and subcontractors for the government's pledge of regularization of irregular workers and the proper establishment of subsidiaries."

The National Airport Labor Union held a press conference in front of the Korea Airports Corporation headquarters in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, on the morning of the same day, stating, "Security screening and special security personnel who were re-employed as subsidiary Aviation Security Partners this year are receiving a basic salary of 1.86 million won, which is even lower than the comprehensive wage system during the previous contractor period." The National Airport Labor Union is a coalition of labor unions from three subsidiaries under Korea Airports Corporation.

Korea Airports Corporation previously regularized about 4,100 irregular workers through three subsidiaries: KAC Airport Services, Nambu Airport Services, and Aviation Security Partners, via a labor-management-expert consultative committee. In this process, unlike Incheon International Airport Corporation, passenger security screening personnel of Korea Airports Corporation were organized under Aviation Security Partners.

Regarding the direct employment of passenger security screening personnel, the union said, "Minister Kim Hyun-mi of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport recently stated on a broadcast that 'security screening personnel are core to safety operations, which is why they were directly employed,'" adding, "Since Korea Airports Corporation's security screening personnel perform the same duties, direct employment is appropriate."

In particular, the union emphasized the need for improved treatment, stating that actual wages have decreased after re-employment as subsidiaries. They said, "More than 200 candidates failed the National Competency Standards (NCS)-based re-employment exam, and about 100 candidates gave up joining due to the high-intensity, low-wage working conditions," expressing, "We hoped for a hopeful life through regularization, but the reality is that the subsidiary is worse off than the service contractors."

The union added, "They are receiving a salary of 1.86 million won, which is lower than the comprehensive wage system during the contractor period, but even this includes about 130,000 won worth of meal allowances, which were illegally included to evade the minimum wage system," appealing, "If these costs are excluded from the basic salary, the amount falls below this year's minimum wage of 1.79 million won."

Accordingly, the union urged the formation of a labor-management consultative body involving both the parent company and subcontractors. The union stated, "At the end of last year, Korea Airports Corporation held a declaration ceremony for the formation of a win-win development consultative body involving the parent company, subsidiaries, and labor unions, promising improvements in unreasonable wage structures and treatment, but these promises have not been kept so far," and added, "Like Incheon International Airport Corporation, a regular consultative body should be formed to discuss treatment improvement issues."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.