Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education, Jeon-gyo-jo and Teachers' Union Join Hands to 'Complete Gwangju Education'

Main Collective Bargaining Negotiation Held

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Cho Hyung-joo] The Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education announced on the 12th that it held the main collective bargaining session (opening ceremony) with the National Teachers' Union Gwangju Branch and the Gwangju Teachers' Union Joint Negotiation Team.

The main collective bargaining session (opening ceremony) was attended by 20 people (10 representatives from each negotiating party), including Superintendent Jang Hwi-guk, Kim Jae-ok, head of the Jeon-gyo-jo Gwangju Branch, and Yoon Jeong-hyun, chairman of the Gwangju Teachers' Union.

In the with-COVID situation following the phased return to normal life, the session was briefly conducted with greetings from the negotiation representatives: Superintendent Jang Hwi-guk, Kim Jae-ok of the Jeon-gyo-jo Gwangju Branch, and Yoon Jeong-hyun of the Gwangju Teachers' Union.

The Office of Education requested the unification of the negotiation window for the two unions in accordance with the purpose of the amendment to the Teachers' Union Act, starting with the collective bargaining demands from the Jeon-gyo-jo Gwangju Branch on June 28 and the Gwangju Teachers' Union on July 7.

As a result, on August 2, the negotiation window was unified for the first time among all metropolitan and provincial offices of education nationwide.

After four procedural consultations with the joint negotiation team, the Office of Education agreed on a collective bargaining procedure designating the heads of relevant departments as representatives for practical negotiations, with practical negotiations held three times a month.

Following public opinion collection on the joint negotiation team's collective bargaining demands (draft), this main collective bargaining session (opening ceremony) was promoted.

This opening ceremony marks the first collective bargaining session in three years since March 12, 2018, when the Jeon-gyo-jo Gwangju Branch signed a collective agreement, with the Gwangju Teachers' Union participating together for the first time.

The main demands include protection of teachers' rights, creation and support of educational conditions, student welfare and autonomy enhancement, improvement of personnel systems, improvement of teachers' research activities, and guarantee of professionalism, comprising 100 main articles with 617 clauses and 4 supplementary articles with 6 clauses.

The Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education and the joint negotiation team agreed at the opening ceremony to actively cooperate to complete Gwangju education based on mutual trust, coexistence, and cooperation in step with the era of future education that can nurture our children's dreams.

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