공무원의 노동조합 설립 및 운영 등에 관한 법률 제정에 대한 고찰 = Inquiry of Legislation of Act on Establishment and Operation of Officials Union

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Public officials' freedom of association was lawfully recognized, though it was restrictive, for the first time in Korea during the dominancy of the "National Government", which was launched in the face of IMF economic crisis. Korea Tripartite Commission, through "social convention for the overcoming of economic crisis" in February 6, 1998, allowed officials to establish an "officials' council" from January 1, 1999. To this end, an agreement to revise related laws was made in the 1998's regular session of the National Assembly, which enacted the "Act of the Establishment and Operation of Officials' Council" on February 14, 1998 based on the agreement of the first Tripartite Commission and had it be in force from January 1, 1999.
However, the Act of the Establishment and Operation of Officials' Council does not mean the recognition of officials' fundamental rights of labor in that it allows 6th grade or lower officials to participate in the council, prohibits those who are allowed labor movement, from participating in the council (Article 3), limits bargaining subjects to improvement of working conditions, enhancement of work capabilities, and complaint management, and only prescribes that "the director of an organization should sincerely bargain and try to implement what is agreed to the fullest extent" (Article 6).
As various operational problems due to legal and instrumental limitation of the Official Council have been pointed out in many previous studies, the functional level of the council does not reach that of the labor-management joint conference, even the right of organization which is given to laborers at minimum are not assured, and furthermore, according to a research through a questionnaire for working-level officials in relation to operational status of the council, activities of the council are limited within working hours, securing of the space to run the council is not easy. In addition, the results of the questionnaire show conflicts of the law and the reality in that, even though most activities in the council do not comply with officials' council related laws, no punishments are being made.
Furthermore, unions, which are not protected by laws, titled "Korean Federation of Officials Union" on March 16, 2002 and "National Officials Union" on March 23, 2002 were established and are now active, and on May 20, 2003 the government promulgated a bill titled "Act on Establishment of Officials Union" and on June 23 notified its legislation and sequently tried to enact it through passage at the regular session of the National Assembly. However, in the face of the oppositions from officials' labor organizations, the Federation of Korean Trades Union, and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the bill has not been laid to the Cabinet Council.
This research shows that most people recognize or assert the necessity to allow the establishment of officials' union, and the establishment of officials' union should be allowed based on the fundamental rights of labor assured by the Constitution and many previous researches regarding officials' fundamental rights of labor.