Education Public Officials to Strike on December 6: "Superintendents Must Resolve"

Disagreement with Authorities over Base Pay Increase and Longevity Allowance
"If Superintendent Does Not Decide, We Will Launch a General Strike"

Educational public service workers responsible for tasks such as school meals and childcare at school sites have decided to hold a general strike this December due to the breakdown of wage negotiations. They blamed the superintendent of education for the failure of the negotiations and emphasized, "If there is no decisive action from the superintendent to change the situation, we will proceed with the general strike."

The National School Irregular Workers Solidarity (Hakbi Yeondae) held a press conference on the morning of the 28th at the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions in Jung-gu, Seoul, announcing that the strike vote conducted from the 10th to the 25th was approved with 93.2% in favor. Out of 76,926 voters, 71,698 voted in favor. Hakbi Yeondae is a coalition of groups including the National Public Transport Workers' Union Educational Public Service Headquarters, the National Women Workers' Union, and the National School Irregular Workers' Union.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Earlier, educational public service workers had conducted several collective wage negotiations with metropolitan and provincial offices of education and the Ministry of Education since July, but these broke down on the 10th. The Central Labor Relations Commission intervened to mediate, but due to significant disagreements between labor and management, mediation was suspended on the 21st.

Hakbi Yeondae is demanding that the base salary be raised to the minimum wage level and that welfare benefits such as holiday bonuses and job assistance allowances be improved. They emphasized, "The management still insists on a base salary below the minimum wage, and despite freezing the seniority allowance, a representative form of wage discrimination against irregular workers, for the past two years, they have only proposed a 1,000 won increase."

Specifically, they demanded an increase of about 110,000 won to raise the base salary of wage type 2 (approximately 1.98 million won) to the minimum wage level for next year, while the education offices and Ministry of Education proposed about 53,500 won, roughly half of that amount. Additionally, Hakbi Yeondae requested ▲a monthly job assistance allowance of 150,000 won ▲improvements to the bonus payment criteria, but the education authorities, representing the employers, refused to accept these demands.

Hakbi Yeondae called for active participation in negotiations from the metropolitan and provincial superintendents of education. They stated, "To quickly move the stalled negotiations toward a resolution, the decisive action and responsibility of the superintendents are necessary. If negotiations continue with the current indifferent attitude, the Solidarity will have no choice but to launch an all-out nationwide struggle."

Last year, educational public service workers faced a strike threat with 91.4% of union members in favor, but the strike was averted through a dramatic agreement between both sides. However, in November 2022, a general strike took place, during which some schools were unable to operate meal services normally and substitute meals such as bread and milk were provided.