Workers Willing to Compromise on Pay Increase

The Government Employees’ Union is reportedly considering not demanding a pay raise this year, as part of its effort to share the growing burden coming from the slowing economy. Thus, the pay hike for the public sector employees will be lower than this year’s 2.5-percent increase.

Policy chief of the union Rah Il-ha said yesterday, “Our economy is in a pretty bad shape. We will do our best not to demand a pay raise. Instead, we will demand a freeze on the public utility charges and college tuitions. That way, we can minimize the reduction in our substantive income.”

Rah added, “Our union members believe that we should lead the initiative. We are the ones who enforce government policies.”

The government workers’ union, a subdivision of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, numbers around 50,000 in membership.

A senior Finance Ministry official said, “We don’t have the specifics yet. But we plan to minimize the raise for the public sector workers,” indicating that their pay hike for the next year will not be higher than this year’s.

The private sector is moving in the same direction to relieve the burden on the ailing national economy.

According to the Labor Ministry, the average pay hike agreed upon by labor and management of businesses with more 100 employees on the payroll was 5.1 percent in June, down from 7 percent in January.

According to the Korea Employers Federation, 65.7 percent of companies settled the pay raise negotiations this year without any labor dispute or upon relegation of the negotiating power by the union. The figure is 1.8 times the 2007 figure of 37.7 percent.

Senior member of the federation Kim Dong-wook explained, “The economy is going downhill, and we fear it would continue. More and more labor unions are waiving their demands for higher paychecks. Instead, they get their employees to guarantee employment.”

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