• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.169-200
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• 2008

노동계급은 다양한 형태의 내적 이질성을 지니고 있으며, 신자유주의 경제정책과 구조조정 과정에서 고용형태에 따른 이질성은 계급균열로 발달하며 노동계급 내적 이질성 논의의 핵심을 구성하게 되었다. 국내의 선행 연구들도 정규직과 비정규직 사이의 물질적 존재조건의 양극화 추세와 사회적 관계의 위계적 배제적 성격을 확인해 주고 있다. 하지만 정규직과 비정규직 사이의 계급균열이 극복되고 노동계급의 내적 통합과 계급형성 과정을 이룰 수 있는지에 대한 논의로 발전하지는 못했다. 본 연구는 계급균열의 극복과 노동계급 통합의 가능성을 검토하기 위해 계급균열의 핵심인 비정규직 노동자 문제를 둘러싼 정규직 비정규직의 의식 수준의 비교연구를 실시한다. 본 연구는 민주노총 공공운수연맹 노동조합원들에 대한 설문조사와 심층면접 연구를 통해 계급균열의 존재를 확인하고 그 원인과 의미를 분석하였다. 첫째, 정규직과 비정규직 노동자들은 비정규직 문제에 대한 인식을 공유하고 있지만 구체적 해결책에 대해서는 입장 차이를 보임으로써 고용형태에 따른 계급균열은 존재하며, 경제위기 이후에도 해소되지 않고 고착화되고 있음을 확인시켜 주었다. 둘째, 고용형태에 따른 계급내적 균열이 비정규직 문제 인식과 추상적 원칙 수준에서는 유의미한 의식 차이를 보이지 않지만 비정규직 문제 해결을 위한 구체적 해결책에 대해 유의미한 입장 차이를 보이는 것은 정규직과 비정규직 사이의 물질적 이해관계의 차이 때문이다. 정규직 노동자들은 비정규직 노동자들의 고용안정성과 노동조건의 개선을 허용하더라도 자신들의 이해관계가 위협받지 않는 수준에서 이루어져야 한다고 보는 것이다. 셋째, 정규직 노동자들이 추상적 원칙 수준에서는 비정규직 노동자들과 동질성을 보이지만 구체적 대안에서 차별성을 보이는 것은 정규직 노동자들의 의식의 양면성을 표현하는 것이며, 물질적 이해관계에 기초한 개인적 수준의 합리성과 계급적 원칙에 기초한 계급적 수준의 합리성이 갈등하고 있는 것이다. 넷째, 정규직 노동자들의 주관성 속에서 개인적 합리성과 계급적 합리성이 갈등하는 정도는 노동조합 가입 여부 및 소속 노동조합의 정체성, 즉 이익집단 정체성 혹은 계급조직 정체성에 의해 결정된다. 여기에 계급조직 정체성을 지닌 민주노조들이 노동계급 계급균열을 극복하고 계급형성을 이루는데 기여할 수 있다는 실천적 함의가 있다.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.209-242
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• 2011

본 연구는 현대하이스코 순천공장과 포스코 광양제철소에서의 비정규직 조직화 비교를 통해 사내하청 노동조합의 조직화에 영향을 미치는 작업장 요인과 지역사회 요인들을 살펴보고자 하였다. 기존의 비정규직 노동자 조직화를 비롯한 노동운동, 노동조합 관련 연구들은 대부분 '생산의 정치'의 영역에서 비롯된 '작업장' 요인들에 초점을 맞추고 있다. 그러나 비정규직 노동자 조직화에 대한 보다 분석을 보다 발전시키기 위해서는 작업장뿐만 아니라 '스케일의 정치'가 작동하는 공간인 '지역사회' 또한 분석의 단위로 통합되어야 한다. 따라서 본 연구는 작업장에서의 정규직 및 비정규직 노동자들에 대한 관리통제와 실천뿐만 아니라, 지역사회의 다양한 요인들이 비정규직 노동자들의 조직화 시도에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지를 검토하고자 한다. 두 사례에서 사내하청 노동자들은 철강산업이라는 산업부문과 사내하청 고용형태에 속한다는 공통점 외에도 낮은 수준의 임금과 노동조건하에서 강한 불만을 지니고 있었으며, 원청 및 사내하청 업체의 강한 통제하에 놓여 있었다는 공통점을 지닌다. 그럼에도 포스코의 경우와 달리 현대하이스코 비정규직 노동자들은 격렬한 대중투쟁과 지역사회의 지원 속에서 성공적인 조직화를 이룰 수 있었다. 사내하청 노동조합 결성 과정 또한 상이하였다. 현대하이스코의 경우 누적된 사내하청노동자들의 불만이 계약해지를 계기로 일순간 터져 나오면서 작업장 점거농성을 비롯한 대중투쟁과 결합하였다. 나아가 현대하이스코 비정규직지회는 지역사회운동과의 연대를 통해 작업장의 문제를 전체 비정규직 노동문제로 확대해 나갔다. 반면, 포스코의 경우 초기 조직화의 범위가 제한적이었고 대중투쟁 또한 강하게 나타나지 않았으며 지역사회의 관심과 지원 또한 약하게 나타났다. 이상과 같이 두 사례를 비교 검토함으로써 비정규직의 조직화에 있어 비정규직 자체 동원기제와 정규직의 지원은 여전히 중요하게 작용하지만, 이것이 확보되지 않을 경우 지역사회를 비롯한 외부의 지원이 일정하게 작용함을 살펴볼 수 있었다. 그러나 이 역시 지역사회구조 및 지역사회운동의 성격에 영향을 받는 것으로 나타났다.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.1-26
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• 2009

Using panel data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study(KLlPS), we examine the wage differentials between standard and Don-standard workers. To control for unobserved individual heterogeneities, we estimate the fixed effect models. Our results show that the OLS estimates are upwardly biased. We also find that labor unions and firm size are important determinants of the wage differentials.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.105-137
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• 2013

This paper proposes to examine the relationship between the two trade unions of Hyundai Motor Company (HMC) - those of the regular workers and of the in-house subcontract workers - around the issue of converting irregular workers to regular ones, which has been a social issue for a long time, and, furthermore, to find a desirable solution. The politics of the in-house subcontracting rotate around three axes: the conflictive collusion between the company and the regular workers'union regarding the internal labor market; the exclusion and resistance between the company and the subcontract workers'union; and the solidaristic conflict relationship between the two unions. After the final decree by the supreme court in 2012 the conflict and collusion/solidarity relationship of the three social actors have been amplified in scale - the continuous limping of the special bargaining between the company and the unions, the intensified conflict between the company and the subcontract workers'union, and the crisis of the collusion between the branches of the two unions are all evidence of this. A clue to the solution to the issues of in-house subcontracting in HMC can be found through reestablishment of the relationship among the three actors. In order to solve the in-house subcontracting issues in HMC, phased and lawful switching from irregular to regular positions, improvement of working conditions for the irregular workers, integration of the two unions (realization of 'one company one union'), and negotiated flexibility in the internal labor market will be required. Also to be considered are installation of a special committee for the issue, and utilization of external consultants. The result would be the possibility for the corporate labor market of HMC to be composed of regular workers, legal contract workers and directly-employed contract workers, which could be realized through bilateral relations of 'the labor and management conflict partnership'.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.207-230
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• 2001

This paper uses the Korean Labor Panel data to investigate changes in the employment types of male workers following their job changes with the classification of workers into three categories: regular wage workers, non-regular wage workers, and self-employed workers. It also estimates a competing-risks hazard model to analyze the determinants of employment types of workers. The results show that the type of employment of a worker at an immediate previous job has a critical importance in determining his employment type at a new job and that the types of employment at jobs other than the immediate previous job also play some role in determining the type of employment at a new job, although their impact declines as the number of intervening jobs increases. A job loser, who worked as a non-regular worker at his immediate previous job, for example, is considerably less likely to find a regular job, but more likely to get reemployed at another non-regular job than one who worked as a regular worker at his immediate previous job. Similarly, a worker who quit self-employment is much less likely to find a regular job but more likely to restart his own business than one who worked as a regular worker at his immediate previous job. These findings suggest that it is not easy at all for a worker who worked as either a non-regular worker or self-employed worker to become a regular worker, although it might be premature to assert that non-regular jobs or self-employed jobs are dead-end jobs. Another interesting finding of this analysis is that a high unemployment rate lowers a probability of reemployment at either regular jobs or self-employed jobs, but raises a non-regular job reemployment probability, which strongly implies that as labor market conditions become adverse to workers the proportion of non-regular employment can rise rapidly.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.81-106
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• 2000

This paper examines whether 'abnormal work practices', which have rapidly increased since the mid 1990s, are a 'bridge' for workers to 'normal work practices' or a 'trap' from which they are hard to escape. It provides both the static and dynamic analysis. The former shows they are likely to work as a 'trap'. The latter, which investigates the transition probability during the last 24 months, also supports the same result. It finds out that most of part-time workers paid by an employer are contingent workers or daily workers and that about fifty percent of 'abnormal workers' took them involuntarily.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-45
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• 2017

The aim of this study is to analyze the process of the struggle and bargaining for the change of the employment position of the irregular (in-house subcontracted) workers being at work in the Hyundai Motor Company (HMC) plants into the status of the regular employee of the company, and evaluate the results and limitation of the irregular workers' movement. Since the unionization of irregular workers in 2003, they have carried on the struggle against and the bargaining with the HMC, over the past 10 years and more, making claims for abolishing 'illegal temporary agency work' and for converting their positions into the regular ones. The HMC have gradually altered a confrontational stance against the workers' claim at the early stage, into the bargaining relationship with irregular workers' union. Eventually, the collective agreement on the 'special hiring' of about six thousands irregular workers by the HMC was reached in 2016. We attempt to analyze in depth the overall process by dividing three phases of the movement, according to the criteria of the relationship between the alliance and conflict system, and the cycle of protests of irregular workers. Furthermore, we try to trace the long and winding path of the movement, focusing on the cooperation/conflict relationship within the movement's alliance system, the confrontation/bargaining relationship between the movement and the conflict system, and the critical roles played by mediators (or third parties) between two systems. In the conclusion of the paper, we evaluate the results and limitation of the irregular workers' movement upon the basis of the following points; the convergence of the workers' demands into the prime goal of 'becoming HMC's regular employee,' the breakaway of regular workers' union from the movement's alliance system, and a virtual extinction of irregular workers' union after the final labor-management agreement of 2016.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.213-260
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• 2013

This study pays attention to the restricted use and the possibility of standard position of contingent workers in Brazil. The labor market of Brazil has been developed by formal and informal labor sector, and informal sector includes various precarious workers as well as contingent workers. According to Brazilian Statistics Department, not contingent workers but informal labor focused in this paper have been slowly decreased since year 2000. In this context, this study investigated on the reasons of decreasing contingent employment in Brazil. The results demonstrate that decreased informal employment and instead increased standard workers could not be interpreted by recent the Braizil's economic boom. Along with literature review, the author conducted the case study regarding employment of contingent workers at six large foreign companies in Sao Paulo. The results of this show that the use of contingent employment was prohibited in regular daily works by the labor law and thus firms employed contingent workers in only temporary positions. Further, firms often promise standard positions for contingent workers when temporary employment contract was terminated since there is little or no exist of the differences of wage between standard and contingent worker in terms of 'same work same wage' and 'minimum wage'. In here, labor unions play a key role in employment change from contingent position to standard job. Consequently, decreasing of contingent workers and stepping stone to regular jobs seems to be triggered by both legal regulation on contingent employment and strong unions. This institutional perspective may extend the theoretical view on the use of contingent workers, and the author discuss that Brazil's case could provide practical implications to Korean labor policy.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.95-136
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• 2013

Using Workplace Panel Survey of 2005, 2007 and 2009 waves, this study estimates the effects of trade unions on employment and the proportion of irregular workers, short-term and part-time workers, and agent temporary and outsourced workers. While the estimation result shows that the percentage of hired workers increases under union presence, these results seem to be contaminated with bias because the differences between unionized firms before union establishment and non-unionized firms are not completely controlled even after adjusting for observed characteristics. Meanwhile, unionized firms and non-unionized firms with grievance procedures employ higher proportion of irregular workers. The proportion of short-term and part-time workers increases only when they are entitled to join trade unions. These imply that the rise in the percentage of irregular workers due to unions and grievance procedures is attributed to the increase in the percentage of agent temporary and outsourced workers. Also, when short-term and part-time workers are allowed to join the union, the firm replaces agent temporary and outsourced workers with short-term and part-time workers, so that the proportion of irregular workers do not change.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.143-178
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• 2018

This study is aimed at empirically examining the Korean unionists' solidarity using the survey of 476 full-time workers employed at the unionized workplace. It also questions the determinants affecting the unionist' willingness to be united with the contingent workers. The Korean unionism has faced the biggest challenge, that is, the crisis-in-worker solidarity. Although prior literature has noted the crisis in Korean unionism, it lacks a solid investigation of individual workers' perception of solidarity which may play a key role in building up worker-solidarity in the union movement. This study first examines the three sources of solidarity allowing for the historical and theoretical approach to the modern solidarity; economic interests, worker-identification and empathy, which provide an emprical framework for this study. The empirical evidences shows dynamic aspects as of how the full-timers perceive solidarity with the non-regular workers in the three terms of solidarity. First, full-time unionists share rare willingness to be united with contingent workers in terms of economic solidarity. In addition, the KCTU (Korean Confederation of Trade Unions) with social reformative orientation has little influence on increasing their member's orientation towards solidarity. Second, it is found that full-time unionists have more willingness to identify themselves with the non-regular workers as a member of the labor class. The KTCU is also positively associated with their member's will of identification with contingent workers. Third, the unionists, however, show little empathy toward non-regular workers, which is contrast to the willingness to worker identification. No causality is also found between the KTCU and their members' empathy for the others.