[6.3 Election] Justice Party’s Kang Eunmi: “Severely Disabled Must Also Enjoy Their Constitutional Right to Work”

"Severely disabled individuals must also have their constitutional right to work fully guaranteed."

On April 27, Eunmi Kang, the Jeonnam-Gwangju Unified Special Mayor candidate for the Justice Party, held a press conference at the Gwangju City Council briefing room, pledging to expand "rights-centered public jobs" for severely disabled people in the Jeonnam and Gwangju regions. She highlighted the low employment rate and limited size of public job opportunities for severely disabled individuals, stressing the need for an institutional transition that guarantees work as a right, not a favor.

On the 27th, workers with severe disabilities and Eunmi Kang, the former Jeonnam-Gwangju unified special mayoral candidate of the Justice Party, who attended the press conference on 'Expanding Public Jobs for Severe Disabled People Centered on Rights' held at the briefing room of Gwangju City Council, urged the promotion of related policies. Photo by Bohyun Song

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Kang stated, "Over the past three years, the economic independence of people with disabilities has not improved, but instead has regressed, and the employment rate for severely disabled people is less than one-third of the national employment index." She also pointed out, "The current system, which is centered on sheltered workshops that do not even guarantee the minimum wage, continues to persist, and the exemption clause in the Minimum Wage Act applied to people with disabilities also acts as a form of discrimination."

Kang explained that although the population of severely disabled people in Jeonnam and Gwangju stands at about 76,000, this year only 35 individuals in Gwangju and 130 in Jeonnam are being hired for rights-centered public jobs. She emphasized, "We must move away from the perception that sees severely disabled people as objects of charity rather than as subjects of work."

She also presented specific measures to expand rights-centered public jobs. Kang announced plans to support Jeonnam-Gwangju-style, rights-centered, customized public job programs for severely disabled people through the "Labor Fund for All" and to enact an ordinance at the unified special city level to support rights-centered, customized public jobs for the severely disabled. The intent is to establish a system in which local governments and affiliated agencies are obligated to implement public job support in accordance with the ordinance.

On the 27th, at a press conference held in the briefing room of Gwangju City Council titled 'Expansion of Public Jobs Centered on the Rights of Severely Disabled People,' Eunmi Kang, the preliminary candidate for the Justice Party’s Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special Mayor, and severely disabled workers shouted slogans urging the expansion of public jobs. Provided by the Justice Party

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Kang added, "The very process in which people with disabilities contribute to society and advocate for their rights through work is itself a right," and pledged, "I will create a unified special city where every city and provincial resident is respected as an equal worker."

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