Incheon Airport Union Files Public Audit Request with Board of Audit and Inspection for 'Direct Employment of Security Screening Staff'

"One-sided Direct Employment and Hasty Promotion Seriously Undermine Public Interest"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yu Je-hoon] The Incheon International Airport Corporation Labor Union filed a public interest audit request with the Board of Audit and Inspection on the 9th regarding the corporation’s push for direct employment of security screening personnel. A public interest audit is a system that allows citizens to request an audit from the Board of Audit and Inspection when a public institution significantly harms the public interest through illegal or improper handling of affairs.

The Incheon Airport labor union held a press conference at 11 a.m. at the Board of Audit and Inspection headquarters in Jongno-gu, Seoul, stating, "The corporation’s unilateral and hasty push for direct employment of security screening personnel has seriously damaged the public interest," and announced that they had decided to request a public interest audit.

At the end of last month, Incheon International Airport Corporation announced that it would directly employ 1,902 security screening personnel, who had previously agreed to be temporarily assigned to a subsidiary for legal amendments, by converting their status to "Cheongwon Police" (security guards). Since then, not only the regular labor union but also the youth have opposed this as "unfair," causing severe confusion.

The Incheon Airport labor union explained the reasons for the request, saying, "The corporation violated government guidelines to promote the conversion of non-regular workers to regular workers through labor-management-expert agreement, and forcibly converted to regular employment while overlooking disqualifications such as fraudulent hiring and sexual offense records of many partner company employees subject to conversion."

The union pointed out that the Cheongwon Police system, which the corporation chose as a detour for direct employment, is a trick. Even the Ministry of Strategy and Finance (then the Ministry of Finance and Economy) in 1998 instructed to replace Cheongwon Police with external specialized companies due to excessive labor costs and decreased security capability.

The union added, "Even the results of legal advice and internal reviews conducted by the corporation over the past three years consistently concluded that changing the status of security screening personnel to Cheongwon Police for direct employment is inappropriate. Nevertheless, the corporation made a decision that goes against three years of review and policies pursued for over 20 years based on a single legal advice obtained in just two days in mid-June," criticizing the corporation.

The Incheon Airport labor union also raised concerns about hiring corruption and moral issues among some of the regular employment conversion candidates. They emphasized, "According to the Board of Audit and Inspection’s audit results in September last year, there were 93 cases of hiring relatives of partner company or corporation executives and employees strongly suspected of hiring corruption. In addition, some partner company employees were identified as perpetrators of sexual harassment and sexual assault and received personnel disciplinary actions, but the corporation proceeded with the regularization of all partner company employees without investigation or management."

The union stated, "The corporation, which should lead fair business practices based on various laws and guidelines as a public enterprise, is abandoning its role and forcibly pushing through direct employment filled with unfairness. If this is not stopped, the value of fairness will be severely damaged, issues of equity with other regular employment conversion cases will arise, and irreversible confusion will spread throughout society."

Meanwhile, labor-labor conflicts within the airport have been gradually escalating since the corporation’s push for direct employment of security screening personnel. The day before, the Incheon Airport Security Screening Service Labor Union held a press conference in front of the Blue House, urging the suspension of direct employment, stating that "direct employment is rather increasing employment instability."

Composed of about 800 security screening personnel, this union separated from the existing security screening union and has been converted to subsidiary regular workers since May. Many of them joined after the corporation’s regular employment conversion reference date (May 12, 2017), so to be directly employed, they must go through open competition including ▲document screening ▲aptitude and personality tests ▲National Competency Standards (NCS) and job evaluation tests ▲interview screening. Since many candidates failed in similar cases at other public institutions, the push for direct employment has actually caused employment instability.

The Security Screening Service Union said, "Due to the corporation’s arbitrary decision, security screening workers have suffered irreparable wounds amid misunderstandings and criticism," and urged, "The corporation president, who caused labor-labor conflicts and divided public opinion, should apologize immediately and strive to prepare a new alternative that satisfies all workers instead of forcibly pushing direct employment that only leaves wounds for everyone." Reporter Yu Je-hoon kalamal@