Labor unions for civil servants said Tuesday they will begin voting this week on the government’s bid to scale back a pension program for its employees in the runup to a massive protest against the plan.
The Confederation of Korean Government Employees’ Unions, a legitimate union of public workers with about 1 million members, announced on its website that it will hold a vote on the reform bill on Nov. 5-10.
The result of the vote will be announced in a news conference scheduled for next Tuesday, it added.
The organization has said it will launch a strong protest campaign against the reform bill if an overwhelming majority of its members vote against the bill.
The Korean Government Employees’ Union, an outsider union, also said its 130,000 members will take part in the vote hosted by the confederation during the Nov. 6-10 period.
The moves come a week after the ruling Saenuri Party revealed a draft bill that will start requiring its workers to pay more into the public pension system and receive less pension in 2016 without collecting opinions from civil servants.
The bill is part of a government plan to undercut its growing pension deficit, which is forecast to reach 484 trillion won (US$458 billion) if left unaddressed.
Government workers, however, have rejected the proposal, saying they have tolerated low pay for a promise of high returns after retirement.
Also on Tuesday, the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union said it has just begun a work-to-rule struggle against the pension reform bill while calling for negotiations over the issue.
“The government and the ruling Saenuri Party are hastily pressing ahead with their plan to deteriorate the pension system for civil servants without having a process to draw social consent,” the liberal teachers’ union told reporters. “We can never accept the proposed bill as it completely denies the specialty of the system and calls for abandoning its element as a public pension system.”
The union said it has put up banners against the reform bill at schools as part of the law-abiding struggle.
Unionized teachers will go further with their struggle — refusing to work overtime and to do administrative chores, holding a no-confidence vote on President Park Geun-hye and taking collective leaves of absence — if the authorities push ahead with the reform plan, the union said. (Yonhap)
