For years, a separate class of South Korean shipyard workers - hired through contractors - say they endured wages barely one-third regular workers', got no paid sick leave for COVID, and routinely rode to worksites in the back of a pickup truck while others sat safe and warm inside their vehicles.

This year, they said they'd had enough. About 100 contract workers at Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering launched a 51-day strike, demanding a 30% wage hike and drawing national attention to the plight of South Korea's contract workers - nearly 30% of the salaried work force by some estimates - who say they have been pushed to the breaking point by surging inflation and lagging wages.

That strike ended this month after the threat of police intervention and only a 4.5% wage increase, but academics and labour activists warned it could be the canary in the coalmine, heralding a new wave of agitation by contract workers who have long borne the brunt of the country's corporate cost cutting. "The problem of lower wages and fewer benefits in indirect employment is so prevalent that (labour action) could boil over at any company," said Jang Seok-won, director of public relations at the Korea Metal Workers' Union.

He noted that, while contracting was most widespread in construction, it was also common in manufacturing industries such as autos, steel and shipbuilding. Last month, a nationwide truckers' strike that ground industrial sites and ports to a halt also included...

Read Full Story: https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/law-order/2126294-analysis-south-korean-...