According to a survey, four out of every 10 apartment security guards suffer verbal abuse or severe humiliation by some of apartment residents or their “employers”. Recently, a security guard who had repetitively suffered from verbal abuse — excruciatingly painful and humiliating — by a resident at the apartment he was working for, attempted to burn himself to death and was hospitalized (in the picture) but finally died in the hospital, illustrating how severe human rights issues are for those who called ‘non-regular’ workers in Korea. (image: SBS)
SEOUL, Nov. 15 (Korea Bizwire) – In a forum discussing the implications of the upcoming change in minimum wage rules applicable to security guards, discussants from advocacy groups said the measure may backfire and some apartment management firms may decide to cut back on their payrolls instead of raising the maintenance fees.
People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, the Human Rights Law Foundation “GongGam,” and the Nowon Workfare Center held on November 13 an emergency meeting following a suicide death on the 7th of a security guard in a Gangnam apartment complex in protest of maltreatment to discuss policy issues related to job security for the apartment guardians.
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The government will raise the minimum wage level for the guards to 100 percent of the currently mandated minimum wage from 90 percent beginning in January next year. Nam Woo-geun, policy analyst with the Korean Contingent Workers’ Center, commented that some collective housing complexes may try to lay off some guards, raise work intensity after layoffs, or reduce rest time during work hours.
Ahn Sung-shik, executive secretary with the Nowon Workfare Center, said based on a survey on security guards in the north of Seoul for two years between 2012 and 2014 that most guards were forced to work during rest hours performing jobs such as patrolling and lights out. Still they are unable to complain as they fear layoff.
The main jobs for the guards are supposed to be crime prevention and safety check-up but they spend only 22 percent of their time on these jobs. In other times, they have to do menial labor such as cleaning, garbage collection, responding to resident complaints, and the like.
By M.H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
