Kim Seungsoo of People Power Party: "Public Institution Employees Increased by 130,000 During Moon Jaein Administration's 5 Years"... Debt Soared by 82 Trillion Won

Side Effects of Converting Non-Regular to Regular Positions: Sharp Drop in New Hires and Hiring Scandals Emerge

Kim Seungsoo, a member of the People Power Party (representing Buk-gu, Daegu), stated on the 2nd, "Former President Moon Jaein's hasty policy to convert non-regular workers to regular positions in the public sector, under the pledge to achieve zero non-regular workers during his term, has resulted in more negative side effects such as decreased efficiency due to the bloating of public institutions, hiring corruption, and a decline in service quality."

According to data confirmed by Representative Kim, who serves on the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts of the National Assembly, through the National Assembly Budget Office's Fiscal and Economic Statistics System, the number of employees at public institutions at the end of the Moon Jaein administration in 2021 reached approximately 438,000, an increase of about 130,000 compared to before the government took office. This is more than the combined increases during the Lee Myungbak administration (about 14,000) and the Park Geunhye administration (about 65,000).

Kim Seungsu, member of the People Power Party

In 2021, public institution debt stood at 583 trillion won, an increase of 82.6 trillion won from 500.4 trillion won in 2016 before the Moon Jaein administration began. Meanwhile, net profit for the year plummeted by 4.6 trillion won.

As a result, new hiring at public institutions dropped sharply. Korea Electric Power Corporation, which was among the top ten public enterprises in terms of regularization, reduced its annual new hires from 1,700 to 1,100 in 2021, a decrease of more than one-third. Korea Racing Authority hired only one new employee in 2020 and did not hire any new regular employees in 2021.

It has been pointed out that the large-scale regularization of non-regular workers increased the financial burden and bloated organizations, thus reducing the capacity for new hiring.

The side effects did not stop there. As regularization approached, some public institution employees were found to have hired relatives and converted them to regular positions, raising issues of illegal hiring. According to an audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection, at five public institutions including Incheon International Airport Corporation, 10.9% of the 3,048 employees who were converted to regular positions were found to be related to current staff members.

After Incheon International Airport Corporation announced it would convert non-regular workers to regular positions, online communities saw posts mocking the situation, such as: "I was making 1.9 million won working as a security screener from AlbaCheonguk, but now I'm becoming a regular employee at Incheon Airport... What are you doing after graduating from Seoyeon High School? While you wasted five years, I earned money and became a regular employee." This fueled conflict among young people, and a Blue House petition calling for a halt to the regularization of public enterprise workers garnered the support of over 350,000 citizens.

In particular, indiscriminate regularization has led to a tangible decline in service quality, increased moral hazard, and a weakening of public institution competitiveness.

Korail Tech, a subsidiary of Korail that had been cited as a model case for stabilizing labor relations through rapid regularization, saw disciplinary cases jump from 11 between 2015 and 2018 to 111 between 2019 and 2022, a tenfold increase. There was also criticism that research performance declined at government-funded research institutes in the science and technology sector after workers were converted to regular positions.

Kim Seungsoo of the People Power Party said, "Although achieving zero non-regular workers within five years was practically an impossible policy, the Moon Jaein administration's reckless push only produced numerous side effects. As all government policies are closely connected to the lives of the people, more fundamental and realistic approaches are necessary," he stated.