Trade unions of fifty two financial and public institutions will simultaneously file lawsuits against their respective institutions to seek the confirmation of legal invalidity of the decision concerning the introduction of the performance-based wage system, as these institutions decided the new wage system only through the board of directors without the agreement of trade unions.
The Joint Countermeasures Committee for the Public Sector Trade Unions whose members are affiliated to the Federation of Korean Trade Unions(FKTU) or the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions(KCTU) on October 31 held a press briefing at the struggle situation room of the Korean Financial Industry Union(KFIU) located in the central Seoul.
The Joint Committee made it clear that what the employers decided the introduction of the performance-based wage system unilaterally through the approval of the board of directors without trade union consensus is in violation of the Labor Standards Act, and unveiled a plan to seek the court ruling by filing lawsuits and applying for an injunction to stop the implementation of the performance-based wage system scheduled from next year.
Fifty two trade unions plan to file lawsuits and apply for an injunction at the same time. Filing lawsuits is to seek the confirmation of legal validity of the decision concerning the introduction of the performance-based wage system which shall be implemented from January 1 next year, whereas the application for an injunction against the new wage system is to stop its implementation in case when the litigation is still under legal process.
These fifty two trade unions are seven from the Korean Financial Industry Unions(KFIU), twenty six from the Public Service and Transport Workers Union(PTWU), ten from the Federation of Korean Public Industry Trade Unions(FKPITU), eight from the Federation of Korean Public Trade Unions(FKPTU), and one from the Korean Health and Medical Workers Union(KHMU).
A KFIU official said, "IBK(Industrial Bank of Korea) union local and KDB(Korea Development Bank) union local have already filed lawsuits and applied for an injunction to the court, and other union locals will follow suit."
The Joint Committee said that the retrogressive labor law reforms and the introduction of the performance-based wage system in the financial and public sectors which the government pushed hard are clearly the policies ill-developed by the scandalous running of the state affairs.
reported by Yoon Ja-eun
edited in English by Kim Sung-jin