초록 열기/닫기 버튼
In Korea the employee has the right to organize, bargain collectively, or act collectively. In principle the public servant, an employee, should also have the same labor rights. Nonetheless, the Korean Constitution(Art. 33-II) prescribes that only the public servant who is permitted by the law has the right to organize, bargain collectively, or act collectively. Accordingly, the Provisions of Public Servants Act and Public Servants Trade Union Act restricts basic labor rights of public servants except the worker in certain public sector. Yet the first established Constitution of the year 1948 has not restricted the labor rights of public servants. Only the Trade Union Act and the Labor Dispute Adjustment Act which were first introduced in 1953 and Public Servants Act included the restriction of the labor rights of public servants. Since 6th amendment of Constitution in 1962 in the Park Chung-hee's military government, which came to power in 1961, appeared the constitutional restriction of public officials' labor rights. The constitution has been amended 8 times since 1948, but constitutional restriction of public officials' labor rights maintained by and large. Until the political reforms in June 1987, the official program to promote economic growth had depended on maintaining strict restrictions on the labor movement. From the period of President Park Chung-hee (1961-1979), Korea's military regimes regarded unions as inherently pro-communist movement threatening the national security. Since the Republic of Korea joined the International Labor Organization (ILO) in 1991, the ILO's Governing Body has repeatedly urged Korea to take the necessary measures to enable public servants to exercise freely the right to organize. The demand among public servants to establish the public servants’ labor right was thereafter more strong. In 2005, eventually, was established the Public Servants Trade Union Act according to which only the public servants 6th grade and under have the right to organize and bargain collectively. The right to strike is prohibited. Some public servants questioned the constitutionality of the law regarding the public servants’ labor right. The constitutional court however held the questioned provisions to be constitutional in general. But the opinion of the minority views the provisions not to be constitutional, because they violate the several ILO-Conventions. No one knows whether and when the minor opinion of today represents majority opinion in future.
키워드열기/닫기 버튼
public servants, labor rights, restriction, Consitutional Court, consitutional
