In commemoration of the 85th anniversary of International Women Workers' Day
Korean Women Workers' Rally in 1993

"Women workers standing firmly as subjects in the workplace"
Special Claims for Women made by Chong Hae-sook, president of Korean Teachers' Trade Union

Today, women workers are still concentrated in labor-intensive industries with discriminatory low wages. Further, they encounter various problems in the workplace. Pregnant women workers often experience miscarriages due to hazardous working conditions and long working hours, and they cannot escape from the position of temporary workers because of the lack of child care facilities after child birth.

In addition, the government and management have expanded irregular-based employment such as temporary employment, hourly employment, and dispatched employment mainly employing married women to maintain cheap labor, so that women workers' job security and working conditions have worsened. We demand the new government to tackle women workers' job insecurity and obtain social equality to practice life-long rights to work and we declare that 4 million women workers will carry out firm struggles.

1. Expand maternity leave to more than 90 days!

   The ILO recommends that maternity leave should be at least 12 weeks. However, even after joining ILO, the government still insists on 60 days for maternity leave, neglecting its role of monitoring management which easily fires women workers on the pretext of delivering babies.

   Also, the government does not insure maternity leave to workers in the public sector including teachers, leaving this duty to administrative levels on the ground, against the recommendation of the ILO. Engaging in this practice worsens women workers' health and uproots their rights to work.

   Therefore, we demand the government to expand maternity leave to more than 90 days to protect women workers' maternity and to prepare for social systems to insure 1-year paid parenting leaves to all workers regardless of gender.

   In addition, the government should provide women workers with 60 day paid leaves after their pre-mature births and still-births during their post-4 month pregnancy, and with at least 21-day paid leaves after their miscarriages during their pre-4 month pregnancy.

2. Guarantee women workers' job security and equal employment!

   As much as 23.5% of women workers experience severe job insecurity working on a contractual, dispatched or daily basis. In an economic depression women workers are the first targets for lay-offs. They receive half of the wages and other financial benefits received by regular workers, and are excluded from social benefits.

   We demand the regulation of temporary workers. It should be compulsory for temporary workers to receive contracts after a three-month period. In addition, manpower agencies should be totally banned because of their discriminatory treatment and severe exploitation. Immediate polices and plans for home-based workers should be set up to provide safe working conditions and measures related to occupational health and safety, to compensate for industrial accidents, and to protect workers from being severely exploited.

   Further, women's job opportunities should be expanded, and widespread gender discrimination should be eliminated in job advertisements and offerings. In order to tackle the gender-segregated structure in the labor market, we demand on the quota system for women starting work in the public sector.

3. Establish compulsory childcare facilities and expand them throughout the country!

   At this moment, the Child Care Law stipulates that companies with more than 500 women workers should establish child care centers on the premises. However, this is unfeasible, because 24.4% of women in such workplaces are married women.

   Since both parents should share the responsibility for caring children, it should be compulsory that companies with at least 150 regular workers regardless of gender establish child care centers on the premise. Further the government should financially support costs related to the establishment of small-size companies.

   It is difficult for individual workers or trade unions alone to obtain the equal right to work and maternity protection. This is our right and responsibility in solidarity with trade unions and women's organizations which put their efforts in achieving maternity protection and employment security for all women workers. Let's fight for all of us in unity whose great majority already participate in the labor market!