Unions accepted into restructuring talks as internal tensions grow
Principles include guaranteeing current work locations, distributing support functions and making balanced use of three campuses
The South Jeolla-Gwangju Special City has decided to form a joint labor-management consultative body — with unions from both the Gwangju and Muan campuses participating — to resolve internal tensions over organizational restructuring and the allocation of functions across its offices.
The city announced Sunday that it would operate a joint labor-management restructuring consultative body in which the departments responsible for organization and personnel, along with the unions at the Gwangju and Muan campuses, would participate on equal footing.
The city plans to use the panel's deliberations to quickly draw up a revised restructuring proposal that reflects input from staff on the ground.
The body was formed after unions at both campuses jointly called on the special city to establish a consultative mechanism that would include civil servant unions in the restructuring process — a request the city accepted.
Since the integrated city's launch, rumors and concerns about the redistribution of functions between campuses and the direction of personnel decisions had spread among employees, deepening internal divisions. In response, the city decided to move away from its previous approach — drafting restructuring plans within designated departments — and instead work with the unions to develop alternatives.
The specific operating procedures and working-level composition of the panel are to be decided by labor and management at the first meeting.
The consultative body will discuss ways to make balanced use of all three campuses, with the aim of achieving both administrative efficiency and balanced regional development.
It will also work to distribute key support functions — including planning, budgeting and personnel — rationally across the campuses, and to develop a plan for assigning functions and departments so that the three-campus system operates equitably.
The main topics on the agenda include the allocation of functions and departments to ensure balanced use of all three campuses, guarantees that staff can remain at their current work locations, measures to ensure fair promotion opportunities, and improvements to working conditions and the resolution of employee grievances.
The city said it intends to develop restructuring alternatives by taking into account not only the interests of specific campuses or departments, but also public convenience, administrative efficiency and the interconnection of functions.
"The true completion of integration becomes possible only when the hearts of civil servants come together as one," a city official said. "We hope the labor-management consultative body will produce the fairest and most rational restructuring plan under the principles of guaranteeing current work locations, distributing support functions and making balanced use of the three campuses."
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