Samsung Electronics submitted a safety and health diagnosis report to the National Assembly concealing a number of contents including the use of methyl alcohol(methanol) which they categorized as trade secrets.

On the last day parliamentary audit of the Ministry of Employment and Labor by the Environment and Labor Committee of the National Assembly on October 13, the omission of the safety and health diagnosis report surrounding the leukemia victims of Samsung Electronics and the government-led performance-based wage system in the public and financial institutions and the prolonged railway strike were at the heart of the debate.

The Environment and Labor Committee summoned 10 witnesses and 14 reference witnesses. However, 6 witnesses did not attend the audit. These are Lee Hae-wook(vice-chairman of Daelim Industrial), Chung Il-sun(CEO of Hyundai BNG Steel), James Kim(CEO of GM Korea), Nam Sang-hyun(chairman of the Daejeonilbo), Jung Jong-hwan(former union leader of GM Korea) and Koh Ji-seop(former executive director of GM Korea).

In examining the witnesses and reference witnesses on that day, the prolonged railway walkout and the issue of performance-based wage system were raised first. Rep. Kim Sam-hwa of the opposition People's Party pointed out that the agreement of trade union or workers' representative should be made before the performance-based wage system is introduced.

However, the Ministry of Employment and Labor pushes for the introduction of the new wage system by using the method of socially accepted rationality. Moreover, it is not possible to measure up the performance in quantity clearly in the public service dimension.

While pointing out that Minister Lee Ki-kweon has sounded several times that the introduction of the performance-based wage system became legal obligation, Rep. Kim Sam-hwa criticized Minister's discretional interpretation on what was discussed in the 19th National Assembly to revise the Act on Prohibition of Age Discrimination in Employment and Aged Employment Promotion in accordance with the extension of the retirement age to 60 years old. Lawmakers at that time only discussed the wage peak system, nothing related to the performance-based wage system.

Han Chang-kyu, vice-president of the Korean Financial Industry Union, who attended the audit as a reference witness said, "Even though the Ministry of Employment and Labor insists that the performance-based wage system is not the under-performer dismissal system, President Park Geun-hye made it clear that the performance-based wage system must be introduced for the sake of labor flexibility."

He continued that during the first half of this year the management sides in the financial sector even confined employees to enforce the agreement for the introduction of the performance-based wage system which is the infringement of human rights.

Regarding the railway strike, Minister Lee and railway union president Kim Young-hoon had heated debates against each other. When Rep. Lee Jung-mi of the Justice Party asked Minister Lee why he defined the railway strike illegal, Minister Lee replied that when the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act was enacted in 1997, collective bargaining was limited to the dispute of interests. He continued to argue that as the railway walkout is about the dispute of rights, it can not be the agenda for the collective bargaining.

Railway union president Kim young-hoon rebuffed that Minister Lee was committing perjury by misleading the fact that the performance-based wage system is a confrontation between labor and management on the wage which is the dispute of interests, not the dispute of rights. He also stressed that when a party does not accept the arbitration by the National Labor Relations Commission, the arbitration loses its authority. Therefore, the railway strike is in compliance with the law. He asked, "What is the reason that the railway strike alone is exceptionally defined as an illegal one?."

In relation to the leukemia victims of Samsung Electronics, Chung Jae-ryoon(vice executive president, in charge of Hwasung plant) attended the audit as a witness. Rep. Kang Byung-won revealed that when he asked the MOEL and Samsung Electronics to submit the safety and health diagnosis report on Samsung Electronics.

Samsung Electronics submitted the report after erasing a number of contents for the reason of trade secrets. Later he obtained the original report and found that the erased contents because of their trade secrets were the situation of industrial accidents, provision of protective gears, health management of employees and so forth. "Are they really trade secrets?", he asked himself in disbelief. Rep. Kang also mentioned that the report submitted by MOEL and Samsung Electronics also erased the content on the use of methanol for the same reason of trade secret. The original report reads that 'although the methanol contains toxic chemical substances, the measurement is omitted.'

reported by Yeon Yoon-jung
edited in English by Kim Sung-jin

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