7 December 2021

The Economic, Social and Labor Council launched the Committee for Labor Relations in the Public Sector.

The Committee held an inaugural ceremony and had its first plenary meeting on December 8.

It will discuss measures to strengthen the right to association and the right to collective bargaining for public employees.

□ The Economic, Social and Labor Council (ESLC) launched the Committee for Labor Relations in the Public Sector in the main meeting room of the ESLC secretariat on December 8 and began discussing measures to improve laws and institutions concerning the three basic labor rights of public employees in accordance with the fundamental ILO Conventions.

○ The National Assembly consented to ratify three of the fundamental ILO Conventions in February 2021. The three Conventions are the Forced Labour Convention (No.29), the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention (No.87), and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention (No.98). ILO Convention No. 87 stipulates the basic principles of the freedom of association such as the right of workers and employers to establish and join organizations of their own choosing and to elect their representatives in full freedom. ILO Convention No. 98 stipulates the governmental obligations to protect workers from discrimination for their membership or engagement in union activities, and encourage and promote voluntary negotiations between employers and workers’ organizations.

□ (Composition) The Committee is chaired by Professor Sung Wook Lee from Ewha Womans University and composed of 13 members, including four members each from labor and the government as well as five expert members.

□ (Main agenda) In the first plenary meeting, the Committee discussed agenda items and future discussion plans.

○ The Committee decided to discuss measures to improve labor relations in the public sector as a main agenda item and a follow-up to the ratification of the fundamental ILO Conventions. To be specific, the Committee will discuss measures to adjust the current union establishment unit* as a means to protect the right to association and ensure the right to collective bargaining by improving the systems on time off, parties to collective bargaining, and a single bargaining channel.

*The law currently restricts the minimum organizing unit of public employees’ unions to the National Assembly, the courts, the Constitutional Court, the National Election Commission, the executive branch, a special city, a metropolitan city, a province, a special self-governing province, Si·Gun·Gu (referring to self-governing areas), and the education office of the special city, a metropolitan city, a province, and a special self-governing province (Article 5 of the Act on the Establishment, Operation, etc. of Public Officials’ Trade Unions). The establishment of a trade union in a unit that is not specified in the law such as at the ministry or agency level is not allowed.

□ Chair Lee said, “Launching the Committee for Labor Relations in the Public Sector is meaningful because it means full scale social dialogue on the protection of basic labor rights of public employees has begun. All participating members will do their best to come up with reasonable measures to improve laws and institutions on labor relations in the public sector that are acceptable to the public.”

□ Sung-hyun Moon, Chairperson of the ESLC, said, “This year, the Moon Jae-in government completed the ratification of the fundamental ILO Conventions, one of the national agenda items, and as a follow-up to the ratification, began discussions on the improvement of laws and institutions on the three basic labor rights of public employees and labor relations in the public sector.” He asked all the labor, government, and expert members to do their best to come up with measures to improve the laws on labor relations in the public sector in accordance with international standards.