• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.71-101
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• 2011

Using an establishment-level panel data drawn from the employment insurance administrative DB, this study investigates the relationship between elderly and youth employment in Korea. The primary focus of interest is whether or not the ageing of workforce and an increase in elderly employment have negative impacts on youth employment. In the regression using the full sample, we find the evidence that a movement in elderly employment and ageing workforce are positively related to youth employment. However, we do not find consistent evidence of the positive impact of the elderly employment on youth employment in the estimations using sub-samples divided by various criteria.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.163-196
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• 2001

This paper is a critical assessment of 'productive welfare policy' of the Kim Dae-jung adminstration and I tried to make several recommendations as alternatives. Quite contrary to concept of 'productive' welfare, which promotes less government intervention and more market-friendly approach, the Kim Dae-jung adminstration seems to have been moving in the opposite direction. As alternatives, I suggested i) work-fare rather than cash assistance, ii ) Employment Insurance Account to cover non-regular workers, iii) Medical Savings Account for minor medical services to reform medical insurance, and iv) enhancement of labor market flexibility by abolishing mandated retirement allowances in Korea I finally proposed the tuition and fellowship support program to the low-income group to enhance their economic status in a knowledge-based society.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.234-242
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• 2013

In 2007, Long-Term Care Insurance Law was enacted to share the family burden of caring for the elderly who are unable to perform every day living activities due to their old age and chronic diseases such as senile dementia, diabetes mellitus, stroke and more. Backed by this law, since 2008, care workers have been sent to the elderly care centers or each elder's home to help them not only with their recovery from illnesses, but also with general activities from dressing, eating, bathing, walking even to toileting. However, according to the recently released survey by National Human Rights Commission, it has been found that the caring workers are in a very poor working condition including low income, abused blanket wage system, shortage of welfare services, extra works and even sexual harrassment. It is becoming an important issue due to fast-ageing population, the fact that the care workers have had experiences of violation in their right of labor while they are at work needs to be carefully treated. In that sense, this article presents some difficulties the caring workers face and proposes effective ways to solve these problems through the perspective of human rights and human labor rights based on the report written by National Human Rights Commission. In short, for this law to function properly and to boost the worker's capability of providing better services to beneficiaries, followings can be good answers - enhanced management and supervision on caring plans and care centers, providing immediate counselling and protection for victimized care givers, training courses offered to promote service receiver's sincere respect and strengthened awareness upon care givers.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.33-45
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• 2015

Present study aims to describe who are the non-regular female workers in South Korea. The dominant form of employment of Korean female non-regular workers is characterized by instable contract, low wage, long-time work and exclusion from the state and occupational welfare. Also, non-regular female workers are not homeogenous but there are various groups of women among female non-regular workers including young part-time workers, high educational middle class contract professionals, particular contract workers such as home-schooling teachers. However, it would worth noting that over 40s, low-educational, low income, breadwinning women who are working in sales, service, and simple handy job are most likely to become non-regular female workers in South Korea. Those women are the major group among non-regular female workers. The public assistance (in cash) for non-regular workers are necessarily needed for them at this point in South Korea.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.438-457
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• 2019

The main purpose of this paper is to identify the entry types and locational determinants of North Korean workers in cross-border regions between North Korea and China. More specifically, the paper has attempted to divide the entry type of them in the regions into two; 1) entry via transactions between Chinese traders with North Korea and North Korea trade companies, and 2) entry via transactions between Korean-Chinese middlemen and North Korean trade companies. Also, it has analyzed main factors of their locational determinants in the spatial contexts of the regions. There have been changes in two perspectives in terms of the entry paths and types of them in accordance with the transformation of characteristics of United Nations sanction against North Korea from 'call-upon' to 'decide' after UN Security Council Resolution 2094 in 2013. Firstly, main agents who have dealing with North Korean trade companies which have right to dispatch North Korean workers have been changed from Chinese traders into Korean-Chinese brokers who are specialized in the introduction of North Korean workers with one-stop service from visa administrative to labor managements. Secondly, there has been a transfer of North Korean workers in the regions from formal to informal workers who has been admitted into China with a short stay or a tourist visa, and then remained illegally to be employed in China. Therefore, as demands on service which is able to guarantee the security of North Korean informal workers and their managements have increased, Korean-Chinese brokers have been stimulated in the regions after the operation of real international sanctions against overseas North Korean workers. In addition, the main factors of their locational determinants in cross-border regions between North Korea and China are could be analyzed in three perspectives; 1) an increase in real wages in accordance with the reform of the Chinese social insurance system after 2011, 2) the structural vulnerability of labor markets in the regions, 3) the utilization of stable and manageable workers.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.75-98
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• 2019

This paper examines the impact of on-the-job training (OJT) programs on turnover rates and employment status in the labor market. Exploiting the administrative data (the Employment Insurance Database), we apply the propensity score matching method to investigate 1) whether OJT participation increases the probability of remaining in the labor market after the job training, and 2) whether trainees are more likely to transition to a new employer. Our findings reveal positive effects of OJT on the continuous employment (2.4~5.3%p). We also observe that trainees show lower rates of turnover for some part of the study period, from 2008 to 2015.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.163-198
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• 2018

This study analyzed the change of the Korean welfare regime during the conservative government. It is clear that the welfare expanded during the conservative government, but this expansion was the process of realizing the constraint of expansion that reduces future welfare expenditure in Korea. In addition, as the public welfare centered on social insurance expanded after 10 years of liberal government, the backward selectivity of the Korean welfare regime strengthened in the conservative administration. Expanding social insurance itself does not reinforce the backward selectivity of the Korean welfare regime. However, the industrial structure created by the export-led growth system has intensified the fragmentation of the labor market, and expanding social insurance designed based on regular workers under these conditions has forced the backward selectivity of the social security system. It is for this reason that the backward selectivity has been reinforced during the conservative government.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.109-142
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• 2018

This paper aims to analyze the Award wage system in Australia for construction workers. Considering low wages and precarious employment situation of construction workers in general, it is of advantage especially for them in Australia. Furthermore, it seems to be instructive for Korean construction workers, who stand in more precarious and unstable situation and furthermore are lack of fair wage and social safety. After strong and longstanding labour struggle in the late 19th century in Australia, it has been established a tripartite institution called as 'tribunal' between trade unions, employers, and the government. Under the highly institutionalized form of industrial relations, it functions as an arbitration and conciliation system between labour and management. The Award wage system stands in the middle point. This Award wage system including various welfare provisions is settled by the tribunal, today renamed as Fair Work Commission. In this wage system should be defined level of minimum wages according to the various skill levels, which are in turn connected with compulsory superannuation and Medicare as well as vocational education and training. Furthermore, it provides especially for the construction workers, who suffer from job instability, so-called 'portable benefits', which relate to long service leave and redundancy pay. Considering general conditions of precarious construction workers in Korea, In that respect, the Australian Award wage system would be very instructive for our social wage and safety system for construction workers.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.113-150
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• 2017

This study analyzes how workers become impoverished and have their jobs less stabilized after they suffer from non-job-related sickness. Given that South Korea lacks sickness benefits, which most of OECD member states legislate and implement except US and Switzerland, this study examines its impact on laborers' job stability and povertization in Korea. The researchers have conducted in-depth interviews with nine former or present laborers who have the experiences and four experts on the issue in July-September, 2017 for the qualitative analysis. It is found that laborers, after becoming aware of their sickness, at first endure their pain without informing their employers not to lose their jobs. The attititude is observed especially among non-standard laborers, because sickness more often leads to job loss for them than for standard laborers. After workers have to leave their jobs due to their sickness in the end, they have no choice but to keep working in less stable jobs to compensate for income losses. They become gradually impoverished with their social capital like family bond declining. We observe laborers who are eligible for industrial accident insurance compensation could not benefit from the system because some employers refrain from the legal reporting duty. Due to this illegal practices, some industrial accident victims unduly lose their jobs due to "non-job-related sickness". Second, some employers report to the authority that their sick laborers have left their jobs 'voluntarily' even when they have quitted it without their volition, in which case the newly unemployed are not eligible for unemployment benefits. Large holes in Korea's safety nets for those suffering from multiple risks of sickness and unemployment.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.129-164
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• 2017

This article is an exploratory study on the recent growth of short-hours part-time work in Korea. The short-hours part-time work has been rapidly growing among low-educated women over sixty, particularly among bereaved or divorced women, contrary to the expectation of the government that encouraged the part-time work by means of work-family balance for working mothers or middle-aged women who experienced career interruption. The short-hours part-time jobs are concentrated in social service industry, mostly elderly care service jobs, and their working conditions are extremely poor, mostly low-wage jobs with no social insurances except for health insurance. In this study, we discuss why the short-hours part-time work has grown so fast in Korea since the mid 2000s. Using various governmental statistics, we examine the effects of the labor demand and supply situations during the time period, the legal context that is related with the exempt clause of the labor law, and the institutional context related with the government's public job creation projects for the elderly. We suggest some public policies needed to slow down the growth of the short-hours part-time jobs and to elevate their working conditions.