hankyoreh

Georgios Altintzis

“South Korea’s business leaders are acting like spoiled children.” This was the conclusion on Apr. 12 from Georgios Altintzis, an EU Domestic Advisory Group (DAG) member for the South Korea-European Union Free Trade Agreement.

Lambasting the behavior of South Korean business representatives at an Apr. 11 Civil Society Forum to examine the two sides’ implementation of FTA labor provisions, Altintzis said members of the Korea Employers’ Federation (KEF) and Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) were “like spoiled children walking out and disrupting the advisory process.”

He also raised the possibility that the EU “may demand government consultations” with South Korea.

Concluded between South Korea and the EU in 2010, the KOREU FTA includes labor and environment provisions in its Chapter 13 on “Trade and Sustainable Development.” A sustainable development committee formed by both sides is currently examining the mutual implementation of the terms in Chapter 13, establishing a separate Civil Society Forum including labor, management, and NGO representatives from South Korea and the EU to receive advise on the agreement’s execution. Either side is entitled to demand “government consultations” if the other side fails to abide by the terms.

An investigation by the Hankyoreh revealed that the adoption of a conclusion at the sixth Civil Society Forum at COEX in Seoul on the morning of Apr. 11 failed when South Korean business representatives from the KEF and KCCI walked out over their objections to advice urging the release of former Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) president Han Sang-gyun. The South Korean business community maintains that with a court verdict having already been delivered on the case, any discussion of Han’s release shows a “disregard for the judicial system.”

“[EU DAG member] was merely making another recommendation of the issue of Han Sang-gyun’s release, which has been the subject of numerous international recommendations to the South Korean government in the past,” said KCTU international bureau director Ryu Mi-gyeong, who attended the forum. “I can’t understand why they felt the need to walk out in protest.”

On Apr. 25 of last year, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined that Han’s detention constituted “arbitrary detention” in contravention of international human rights laws. The Governing Body of the International Labour Organization (ILO) issued a recommendation to Seoul last November demanding the “release of Han Sang-gyun and all labor union officials detained for having organized or peacefully participate in popular indignation demonstrations in 2015.”

Officials with the EU saw the move by South Korean business representatives as being less about the issue of Han’s release than an attempt to oppose the FTA’s labor provisions.

“The South Korean business representatives seemed opposed to the very international labor system, and I think their intention may have been to prevent a conclusion from being reached,” Altintzis said, while calling for “amendments to the labor rights part of the FTA to allow measures to be taken when a party does not comply with labor laws.”

In a roundtable the same day, other International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) officials voiced serious concerns about South Korea’s basic labor rights.

“In South Korea, freedom of association and various rights are being seriously constrained for many different people, including indirectly employed workers, specially employed workers, and the unemployed,” said ITUC legal unit director Makbule Sahan.

“The most problematic are the way labor union laws force integration of channels for collective bargaining and the way labor union establishment reporting has devolved into a de facto prior permit system,” Sahan added.

Retaliatory measures through punishment or excessive attachments for damages from striking workers in accordance with Article 314 of the Criminal Act on ‘interference with business are particularly severe,” said Ruwan Subasinghe, legal officer for the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF).

Every year since 2014, the ITUC has published a Global Rights Index (GRI) rating 140 countries on their level of legal and practical guarantees on labor rights; since 2015, South Korea has consistently received the lowest ranking of 5. Other countries receiving a 5 rating include the Philippines, Egypt, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Cambodia.

By Lee Ji-hye, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]