National civil servants union creates external affairs committee to strengthen ties with Assembly, media

The National Civil Servants Labor Union has moved to expand its communication channels with the National Assembly and the media, establishing a dedicated external affairs structure to better protect the rights and interests of national civil servants. The union created a new standing body to translate workplace grievances from across the civil service into policy proposals and drive institutional reform.

The union announced Thursday that it had formally launched an "External Affairs Special Committee" tasked with handling Assembly policy cooperation and media outreach, and that the committee had begun full operations.

The union's steering committee voted to establish the special committee in September, then appointed Jeong Seung-mun, chair of the Ministry of Health and Welfare chapter, as its inaugural chair.

The launch is intended to move issues surrounding national civil servants' working conditions and welfare beyond internal union demands and into policy discussions at the Assembly and in government. The committee will focus particularly on raising public awareness of key issues, including the welfare support gap between national and local government civil servants and the need to establish a mutual aid association for national civil servants.

Going forward, the committee will concentrate on policy cooperation with National Assembly standing committees, developing external communications strategies and building a network of outside experts. The union plans to broaden its outreach base so that its activities and policy demands reach the general public, and to ensure that the union's positions are meaningfully reflected in legislative and institutional reform processes.

The union also brought in outside expertise to strengthen its media outreach capabilities. On Wednesday, it held a commissioning ceremony for a new external special committee member with hands-on public-sector communications experience, formalizing the appointment to bolster policy communications and external engagement.

Union Chair Lee Cheol-su took note of recent developments at the National Assembly's national audit of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, where the welfare gap between national and local government civil servants was raised publicly and calls were made for the creation of a mutual aid association for national civil servants.

"Now that the difficulties national civil servants face on the ground have begun to be discussed in earnest at the National Assembly, I hope the External Affairs Special Committee will serve as a bridgehead connecting the government, the Assembly and the public," Lee said.

Newly appointed Special Committee Chair Jeong stressed the importance of communication that builds broad public understanding, alongside policy cooperation with the Assembly.

"Close cooperation with National Assembly standing committees and media outreach that resonates with the public are paramount for improving civil servants' working conditions and resolving issues facing each chapter," Jeong said. "We will work together with internal and external experts to convey the voices of national civil servants accurately and ensure that effort translates into real institutional reform."

The union said it plans to use the committee's launch as a springboard to expand its policy consultation channels with the Assembly and strengthen its external negotiating power on welfare improvement and working environment reform for national civil servants. Turning on-the-ground demands into concrete policy alternatives and connecting them to legislation and institutional change will be the committee's central task going forward.