KCTU condemns minimum wage panel for rejecting protections for 8.7 million gig workers

By Jung Joo-won, The Herald Business

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) sharply condemned the Lee Jae-myung government and the Minimum Wage Commission on Friday after the panel voted down a proposal to establish a separate minimum wage standard for contract workers. The union urged the government to swiftly present a plan to introduce a minimum pay guarantee for special-employment and platform workers.

The KCTU held a press conference Friday morning at its education hall in Jung-gu, Seoul, saying the Minimum Wage Commission "turned its back on the desperate demands of special-employment and platform workers who fall outside the law's protection."

Special-employment and platform workers — such as delivery riders — are legally classified as independent contractors in many cases, placing them outside the scope of the current Minimum Wage Act. Labor groups have long called for a separate standard that would guarantee them a minimum wage.

At its fifth plenary session Thursday, the Minimum Wage Commission put the proposal to a vote and rejected it 15 to 11, with one invalid ballot. A compromise proposal put forward by labor representatives — the establishment of a dedicated subcommittee on minimum wages for contract workers — was also voted down.

KCTU Vice Chairwoman Lee Mi-seon criticized the outcome, saying the "desperate wish of 8.7 million special-employment and platform workers who cannot even be guaranteed a minimum wage has been coldly trampled at a time of deepening inequality." She added that "the Minimum Wage Commission will not be able to escape its historical responsibility."

She further said that "despite clear legal grounds, numerous court rulings and a Ministry of Employment and Labor survey of actual conditions, employer representatives muddied the core issue while public-interest members hid behind the convention of labor-management consensus and stood by." She said the Lee Jae-myung government must answer for the rights stripped from special-employment and platform workers.

The KCTU also took aim at the Ministry of Employment and Labor's passive response. Park Jeong-hun, vice chairman of the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union, said the situation could be summed up as "a Minimum Wage Commission that conducted shoddy deliberations, a Ministry of Employment and Labor that acted as a research contractor, and a government with no plan." He said the ministry failed to submit even the basic data needed for deliberations, limiting itself to commissioning research studies.

Platform workers described the reality of being excluded from minimum wage protections. Koo Gyo-hyeon, head of the Riders Union branch, said delivery platform companies claim to improve rider safety and income while in practice intensifying workloads. He also criticized the government for rushing through discussions on what it had designated a national policy priority.

Lee Chang-bae, chairman of the National Designated Driver Workers' Union, said designated drivers earn around 890,000 won (about $583) a month, while Kakao Mobility's operating profit has more than tripled over the past three years. "The responsibility for a reality in which 270,000 designated driver workers cannot even be guaranteed a minimum wage lies with the government," he said.

Jeong Nan-suk, chairwoman of the National Learning Materials Industry Workers' Union, said the International Labour Organization has also recommended that platform workers not be paid below the minimum wage. She called the commission's decision "a declaration that special-employment and platform workers will be left in the blind spot of law and the system."

The KCTU outlined its plans for future action. The union said it would demand a minimum wage guarantee for special-employment and platform workers and push for related legislative reform through a protest rally in front of the Ministry of Employment and Labor in Sejong on Tuesday, a rally to fight for minimum wage increases on June 27, and a general strike on July 15.