Controversy Over Direct Employment at NHIS Call Center... Will a Decision Be Made Today?

Last June, counselors belonging to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions National Health Insurance Customer Center Branch at the National Health Insurance Service in Wonju, Gangwon Province, demanded a meeting with Director Kim Yong-ik.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] As a solution to the direct employment issue of the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) customer center counselors is being finalized through the establishment of an affiliated institution, a decisive meeting will be held on the 21st.

According to the NHIS and the NHIS Customer Center Branch of the Public Transport Union under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions on the 21st, the 15th meeting of the Office Discussion Council for related discussions will take place in the morning. The Office Discussion Council is a deliberative body involving NHIS labor and management, the customer center branch, and external experts, which has been discussing the issue of converting customer center employees to regular positions since June.

Currently, customer center employees belong to regular positions under outsourcing companies. They went on strike in June demanding direct employment as regular workers by NHIS, and large-scale rallies were held in Wonju, Gangwon Province, where the NHIS headquarters is located, with other members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions joining in.

So far, the council has been discussing four possible solutions: ▲continuing private outsourcing ▲conversion to a subsidiary ▲conversion to an affiliated institution ▲direct employment. At the meeting, establishing the customer center as a separate affiliated institution, effectively regularizing them as NHIS employees, is expected to be discussed as the most likely solution.

Currently, NHIS has two affiliated institutions: Ilsan Hospital and Seoul Nursing Home. An affiliated institution is similar to a subsidiary but shares the same corporation and articles of incorporation as NHIS and operates through budget allocation. This is an unusual approach, different from many institutions that have chosen direct employment through subsidiary establishment as a solution to non-regular worker issues since the Moon Jae-in administration declared the "regularization of non-regular workers in the public sector" in 2017.

Kim Yong-ik, President of the National Health Insurance Service Photo by Yonhap News

Kim Yong-ik, NHIS President, explained this plan at the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee’s audit the day before, saying, "If it is decided to make 1,600 (customer center) employees part of an affiliated institution, they will be accepted through a certain hiring process within the current outsourcing budget," and added, "It is expected to ensure employment stability without additional personnel or budget increases." However, he also noted that the solution is not yet finalized through the affiliated institution conversion, stating, "Discussions are ongoing through the council, and it is difficult to say when and how a decision will be made."

However, it is still uncertain whether this issue will be resolved at the meeting. The customer center branch and some members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions still insist that only direct employment is the solution, and the Fair Value Solidarity, a group of MZ generation employees within NHIS, strongly opposes it, calling it a "violation of fairness." On the previous day, a post titled "Opposition to direct employment and establishment of an affiliated institution for the call center" was uploaded on the Blue House’s public petition board, claiming that "direct employment and institutionalization of the NHIS customer center violate social fairness."