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Since THREE WEEKS Yeo Min-hui and Oh Su-yeong...

... union members of the Jaeneung Educational Institute (JEI) chapter of the Korean Educational Materials Industry Union, are occupying a 20-meter bell tower at the Hyehwa-dong Catholic Church in Seoul...

And yesterday's Hankyoreh reported the following:
 

  Dismissed workers still freezing in rooftop protest

Tutors leading desperate struggle to draw attention to the issue of temporary workers in South Korea  

The scene was a tent erected in front of the head offices of JEI Corp. in Seoul’s Hyehwa neighborhood by the education chain’s branch in the Korean Tutors’ and Education Laborers’ Union. It was the afternoon of Feb. 26, and the union members were looking across the road at Hyehwa Cathedral. Perched 15 meters up on its bell tower were two laid off workers from JEI, 39-year-old Yeo Min-hui and 38-year-old Oh Su-young. Their rooftop protest had reached its 21st day.

Banners on the cathedral‘s outer wall - bearing messages like “Sign a collective agreement!” and “Reinstate all the laid off workers!” - seemed to testify to their desperate plight. The two women’s health has also deteriorated as the protest has drawn out over a three-week period.

“My body‘s swollen up because my blood isn’t circulating well in the cold,” said Oh. “Yeo Min-hui has chilblains on her toes.”

Oh said that she was having a difficult time mentally and physically, but added, “I can’t come down, not until the problem has been resolved.”

It was the 1,895th day of sit-in street protests by former JEI workers. “There’s no hope of an agreement today,” sighed Yu Deuk-gyu, who heads the situation office for JEI’s union branch. “It’s supposed to be the longest-ever struggle at a temporary workplace now.”

Indeed, the battle has been going on for six years already, having started in December 2007. JEI now holds the record over Kiryung Electronics, where workers fought for 1,895 days to have temporary employees with more than two years of service automatically converted to full-time status according to the law.

Why is the JEI fight going on so long? In large part, it is because of an inability to decide whether worker status should be recognized for so-called “special employment positions.” In these positions, people are hired on paper as “contractors,” but work more as laborers. To all outward appearances, it seems like a conflict between labor and corporate management. In reality, it speaks to a larger issue about a particular class of positions.

The union’s demand is simple: it wants recognition from the company. And on that basis, it is calling for the reinstatement of 11 of 12 workers dismissed by the education company over the union issue and the signing a collective agreement that was unilaterally dissolved by JEI. (One of the workers has since died of cancer.)
JEI teachers founded the union in 1999, and even received an establishment certificate from the Ministry of Labor. A collective agreement was in place with the company through 2007. But then came a 2005 Supreme Court ruling stating that the instructors were not actually laborers. JEI dissolved the agreement, using the ruling to argue that it could not recognize labor union activity if the teachers were not laborers.

The battle has been going on ever since.

“These teachers are probably the most ‘laborer-like’ of all the special employment workers,” said Lee Nam-sin, who heads the Korean Contingent Workers’ Center. “The company needs to do the forward-thinking thing and recognize their union.”

The company, for its part, said it felt a “grave sense of responsibility” about the protests dragging on for so long and indicated plans for “active dialogue” with the union.
But to solve the problems of those is such special employment occupations as golf caddy and insurance planner, a change to the law is necessary. Currently, they are classified as “employers,” which means they receive no labor law protections. If the law isn’t amended, the JEI situation will likely be replayed again and again.

Last year, Seoul Administrative Court issued a ruling that disputed the Supreme Court’s position. In a retrial case filed by JEI union members demanding the overturning of their improper dismissal and restitution for improper labor activities, the court recognized that JEI instructors were “laborers as defined by labor law.”

“I heard that Park Geun-hye has said she is going to work to solve the irregular worker problem within her term,” said Yu Deuk-gyu. “The more than two million special employment workers nationwide represent the leading example of temporary employment.”

“They need to have their worker status recognized so they can go about improving their own working conditions,” Yu added.

 http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/575760.html 

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And finally here you can watch a video, documenting yesterday's Culture Festival in Seoul's Hyehwa-dong(in front of JEI)!