New Ministry Dept. to Deal With Gov`t Workers` Unions

The Public Administration and Security Ministry will establish a department to deal with government employees’ unions, a report submitted to the National Assembly Committee on Public Administration and Security by the ministry said yesterday.

The new department will go under the human resources planning bureau and consist of 10 public officials. It will monitor the political activities of public servants’ unions and discipline those committing illegal activities instead of the ethics and public service bureau.

The establishment of a separate department seeks to effectively respond to illegal activities by such unions, the ministry said.

Separately, the Labor Ministry is reportedly reviewing adding personnel to deal with government workers’ unions.

The Public Administration and Security Ministry will also set up a division under its local administration bureau to help provincial governments handle unions. The division will focus on monitoring illegal activities such as illegal collective agreements, allowing incumbent public servants to assume union positions, and unfair support for unions.

The ministry will also pursue the disclosure of collective agreements reached between unions and provincial and municipal governments and agencies on the Web.

A new index will gauge provincial and municipal governments’ handling of government workers’ unions. The central government will base the amount of subsidies distributed to such governments on this index.

The criteria for the index include illegal elements in collective agreements, participation in union activities by former public servants who were fired, union activities during office hours, and the participation of ineligible public servants in union activities.

sunshade@donga.com