cwemory
Joined: 14 Jan 2006
Location: Gunpo, Korea
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 Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:45 am Post subject: (Korean) Court backs migrant workers' union |
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Court backs migrant workers' union
koreaherald.co.kr
A Seoul appellant court yesterday ruled that migrant workers have the right to organize a labor union regardless of their legal status.
The Seoul High Court overturned a lower court ruling last year which backed the government's refusal of a request by a group of foreign workers to form a labor union.
Foreign workers welcomed yesterday's decision as paving the way for the better protection of labor rights of more than 360,000 migrant workers who face rampant abuse and unfair treatment at workplaces.
"This means all migrant workers have the right to establish a labor union or become unionized members, whether they have legal status or not," said workers' counsel Kwon Young-kuk.
In May 2005, the Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrant Trade Union submitted an application to launch a legal labor union at a Seoul regional office of the Labor Ministry.
But the ministry rejected it on the grounds that it would include those overstaying their visa or entering the nation illegally.
Migrant workers often experience various forms abuse in the workplace as employees exploit their illegal status which prevent them from complaining to the authorities. Many illegal workers who were injured on the job received inadequate treatment and little or no compensation.
The number of foreigners who remained in Korea for longer than 90 days reached at 536,000 last year, accounting for more than 1 percent of the whole population.
At least 360,000 migrant workers were believed to be working in Korea as of June 2006, some 1.5 percent of the total workforce, according to Amnesty International, an international human rights watchdog. Of this total, there were at least 189,000 "irregular" migrant workers and at least 115,000 "documented" migrant workers.
Initially the union first had 91 members from Bangladesh, Nepal, the Philippines and Indonesia working in the capital, Inchon and Kyonggi Province in 2005, but now boasts over 200 members, Kwon said.
"The number keeps rising and falling because some of the illegal migrant workers get arrested and deported back to their countries," he said.
Anwar Hossain, the Bangladeshi leader of the union, was arrested in May 2005 for overstaying his Korean visa. The Immigration Bureau released him last April due to his poor health.
"It's quite hard to understand why we have to become illegal immigrants. The government here brings in new workers while forcing experienced workers out of the country," Hossain once told local media. "We're only here because we want to make a living, and it is time that our voices are heard."
The union had demanded the government to follow a 1997 Supreme Court ruling, which grants that every worker, regardless of their legal status, should be guaranteed basic rights, including the right to organize. |
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/02/02/200702020014.asp |
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