Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Jung-sik speaks at the non-regular worker discrimination meeting on Nov. 24 (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 27 (Korea Bizwire) – Bank A covers meal and transportation expenses for employees working eight hours a day but doesn’t provide this for those working seven hours and thirty minutes a day.
Bank B mandates that only non-regular workers arrive at work earlier. Securities firm C refused to pay a 190 million won allowance for unused annual leave to 72 employees.
On November 24, the Ministry of Employment and Labor announced the results of its planned oversight conducted with 14 major financial institutions from February to October this year, focusing on their discrimination against non-regular workers.
Among the 14 supervised financial institutions, including five banks, five securities firms, and four insurance companies, 12 (excluding two insurance companies) were found to have violated labor relations laws.
The number of labor law violations totaled 62, indicating an average of five violations per workplace.
In detail, seven financial institutions were found to discriminate against temporary workers.
One bank paid meal allowances of 200,000 won and transportation allowances of 100,000 won to employees working eight hours a day. However, such payments were not offered to employees working seven hours and thirty minutes a day.
Another bank instructed only contract and temporary workers to arrive at work ten minutes earlier.
A bank provided a special bonus equivalent to one month’s wages to directly employed drivers but paid only 400,000 won to contract-based drivers.
A securities firm offered a holiday travel allowance of 600,000 won to regular workers but didn’t pay temporary workers.
Four financial institutions were found not to have paid financial rewards, while seven financial institutions violated the maternity protection system.
A bank did not pay a 112.57 million won allowance for unused annual leave to 103 retired workers and 96 current workers. It also required a pregnant worker to work overtime.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor issued corrective measures for 60 violations of labor laws and imposed a fine of 325 million won for two cases that omitted essential items in labor contracts.
Most of the corrective measures were implemented, and some cases are awaiting judgment by the labor committee.
Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Jung-sik also engaged in discussions with representatives from financial institutions at the Seoul Regional Employment and Labor Administration. During the meeting, he emphasized that the cornerstone of labor reform lies in adherence to workplace laws grounded in common sense and fairness, along with the rectification of unreasonable practices.
The ministry plans to publish guidelines on principles and cases for fairly dealing with non-regular workers on December 8.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
