Gyeongbuk Province and Public Workers' Union Fail Wage Negotiations... Union Begins Tent Sit-in and Picket Protest

Union "Demanding Same Conditions for General Staff Step System" vs Gyeongbuk Province "Not Possible Without Adjusting High Starting Salary"

The photo shows Governor Lee Cheol-woo of Gyeongbuk Province and about 250 employees of the Gyeongbuk Provincial Office participating in the 'Thanks Challenge' on May 6 last year. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Dong-wook] Contract (public service) employees at the Gyeongbuk Provincial Government Office are demanding a seniority-based pay system like regular public officials, conducting daily picket protests along with a tent sit-in. This is the first labor dispute by the public service union since its establishment three years ago.

Those working as administrative assistants or performing simple labor at the provincial office and its affiliated business sites are demanding correction, stating that under the 'job-based pay system,' their base salary remains the same regardless of how long they work. However, Gyeongbuk Province holds the position that implementing a seniority-based pay system without wage adjustments for low-tenure public service employees is difficult to accept.

According to Gyeongbuk Province on the 13th, last year, the provincial public service labor union and the province held 10 internal negotiations and two mediation meetings at the Gyeongbuk Regional Labor Relations Commission to conclude the 2020 wage agreement, but the wage negotiations broke down due to a significant gap in positions.

Currently, the starting salary for public service employees in Gyeongbuk Province is the highest among the 17 metropolitan cities and provinces. Based on administrative assistants (Group A), the first-year annual salary for public service employees is about 30.47 million KRW. For road maintenance workers (Group B), it is 32.48 million KRW; for electrical and mechanical workers (Group C), 33.88 million KRW; and for agricultural machinery management (Group D), 36.5 million KRW. In addition, they receive welfare points (900,000 KRW annually + α), family allowances, child education subsidies, overtime pay, and annual leave compensation separately.

The problem is that these annual salaries do not differ significantly even after 30 years. For administrative assistants, the difference between the 30-year salary and the starting salary is only about 6 million KRW. Therefore, although the starting salary is the highest nationwide, after 10 years, the salary structure becomes lower than that of other metropolitan governments.

In this negotiation, Gyeongbuk Province proposed not only a seniority-based pay system with wage adjustments but also a differential increase plan that maintains the current job-based pay system while adding more consideration for long-term service. However, the union completely rejected this.

At the Gyeongbuk Labor Relations Commission mediation committee, the union's demand for consideration of long-term service was accepted, and the following final proposals were made: ▲ a 10,000 KRW increase in fixed meal allowance ▲ changing the current fixed holiday allowance (1.5 million KRW annually) to a fixed rate of 80% of the base salary (1.52 million KRW to 1.87 million KRW depending on job group) ▲ and a differential increase plan for long-term service incentives by service period. However, this also ended in failure.

The union is demanding a uniform increase in long-term service incentives (from 17,000 KRW to 30,000 KRW) and holiday allowances at 120% of the base salary if a seniority-based pay system without wage level reduction is not implemented.

Following a 6.5% increase in the 2019 wage agreement, the union's demand for a 6.12% raise is met with a firm stance from Gyeongbuk Province, stating that it is difficult to accept considering the difficult financial conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors.

Lee Jang-sik, Director of the Autonomous Administration Bureau, said, "I feel sorry for the union members conducting labor disputes in unprecedented severe cold," and added, "In these difficult times, for the welfare of the residents, I hope that labor and management will make concessions step by step so that the wage agreement can be resolved smoothly and reasonably."

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