• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.553-563
• /
• 2020

Suicide is one of the major social problems in Korea, and its suicide rate is highest among the OECD countries. It has been reported that employment instability in labour market is causal factor of suicide ideation. Because the unemployed and temporary or part-time workers are reported to have high level of suicide ideation due to unstable job security, and they are likely to be a high risk group for suicide, it is necessary to do in-depth research on the effect of job stability on suicide ideation and the protective factors. For this purpose this study investigates the relationship between employment status and suicide ideation, and examine the moderating effect of family function. Data of 1,235 adults from the national-wide 'Longitudinal Study of Suicide Survivors' Mental Health were analyzed. Employment status were associated with the level of suicide ideation(B=-.904, p<.001), and the level of suicide ideation was the highest in the unemployed group. And the moderating effect of family function was statistically significant(B=-.218, p<.05), and good family function buffers the effect of unstable job status on suicide as a protective factor. Based on these findings, policy and practical implications for suicide prevention for precarious employment from the family dimension are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.85-127
• /
• 2017

Due to the management innovation policy that was introduced to governmentsupported research institutes (GSRI) in 1998, their employment structure has been continuously changing, with the most notable increase of the number of non-standard researchers and the diversification of employment contracts. This paper examines changes in the employment structure of GSRI over the last 20 years in relation to the introduction and operation of the PBS (project base system), which is a main factor that fundamentally changed the employment structure of research institutes. This paper purposes to analyze the current status of non-standard workers in the science and technology research area through interviewing standard and non-standard researchers. Under the PBS as a principle of organizing their research project, the project-managers cannot help but exploit non-standard researchers to process research within a tight budget. This structure of organizing research projects reinforces the increase of the number of non-standard researchers and diversification of non-standard employment relations. In addition, the wage and working conditions of non-standard workers are getting aggravated in this structure. Considering the characteristics of research institutes, precarious status of non-standard researchers will have negative effects on the development of science and technology.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.197-227
• /
• 2018

This article aims to analyze some conditions for the reinforcing social security rights of atypical construction workers, and their socio-economical effects, and furthermore, to explore political measures for compliance with obligation of the four basic social insurances. Although the construction industry is one of the pivotal industry sectors, which contributes to the economic development, it is a typical industry sector, half of whose manpower is atypical and irregular. This kind of reality results especially from its own sectoral features and employment structure. We will argue that our society needs political measures for compliance with obligation of the basic social insurances for the construction workers, and it would help the reinforcing social safety net of the precarious construction workers, and furthermore enhancing competition in the construction industry. For this purpose, we will suggest concrete conditions for compliance with obligation of the basic social insurances and prove its positive socio-economic effects. In the end, we will propose some detailed measures like direct construction, introduction of the prevailing wage, etc. for this politic approach.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.158-163
• /
• 2024

Objectives: The present paper aimed to examine whether an aging workforce is associated with an increase in work-related fatal injuries and to explore the underlying reasons for this potential increase. Material and methods: Aged workers were defined as those who were at least 55 years old. Work-related fatalities were assessed in aged and young workers who were registered with the workers' compensation system in 2021 in the Republic of Korea. Total waged workers, based on raw data from the Local Area Labor Force Survey in 2021, were used as the denominator to estimate the work-related fatality rates. Results: Most work-related fatalities in the aged workers occurred among individuals working in the "construction sector" (58.9%), those with "elementary occupations (unskilled workers)" (46.1%), and those with the employment status of "daily worker" (60.8%). The estimated incidence (0.973/10,000) of work-related fatalities among aged workers was about four times higher than that (0.239/10,000) among younger workers. "Falling," "collision," "struck by an object," and "trip and slip" were more frequent types of work-related fatalities among aged workers relative to young workers. The category of "buildings, structures, and surfaces" was a more frequent cause of work-related fatalities among aged workers than among young workers. Conclusions: Aged workers had a higher incidence of work-related fatalities than young workers. Frequent engagement in precarious employment and jobs, coupled with the greater physical vulnerability of aged workers, were likely causes of their higher level of work-related fatal injuries.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.65 no.1
• /
• pp.147-174
• /
• 2013

Until recently, self-employment workers are often excluded from labor market studies. Most relevant studies has focused on the determinants of entry into self-employment. However, the self-employment is highly exposed to poverty risk although they are working. Despite that, relatively little is known about the economic severity of the self-employed. This study uses data from the Korea Welfare Panel Study to examine the situation of the self-employed's in-work poverty and the determinants of in-work poverty among them. Major findings are as follows. First, self-employed people experience 3.5 times higher in-work poverty risk than employees. Especially, the ratio of own-account self-employed people living below the poverty line is similar with that of even precarious employees. Second, the extent of poverty of self-employment is more serious. Third, the proportion of self-employed among working poor is about 53% although self-employed workers are composed of only about 24% among working people. Fourth, temporary employees and self-employed people are more likely to be poor than full time employees according to logistic regression. It is statistically significant. It implies that it is desirable to regard the self-employed as the policy target group along with temporary employees. Fifth, the ratio of in-work poverty of self-employed aged 40-64 whose education level is low and the self-employed aged 40-64 who work in low-skilled service sector are higher than that of the other group. It implies that measures to alleviate their economic difficulties are urgently needed.

• Korean journal of communication and information
• /
• v.79
• /
• pp.226-259
• /
• 2016

Drawing on the autonomist Marxist concepts of 'social factory', 'immaterial labour', and 'precarity', this paper discusses the changed nature of labour, life and social relations in contemporary informational capitalism. More specifically, it first traces back to the early autonomist (operasimo) theories of 'social factory' and 'class composition' and then discusses how these earlier theories were developed into the concept of 'immaterial labour' by a group of later autonomist theorists such as Paolo Virno, Maurizio Lazzarato, Micheal Hardt, and Antonio Negri. Then, it reviews how the concept of immaterial labour was taken up to understand the nature of labour in digital economy within the tradition of Cultural Studies, closely intersecting with the critiques of 'creative labour'. Finally, it discusses how the changed nature of labour is interrelated with the neoliberal labour forces transformations such as casualization of employment and increasing insecurity in employment and life, which the autonomist explores with the concept of 'precarity', the material condition of immaterial labour.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.18-37
• /
• 2024

This study examines migrant workers' occupational health and safety issues through a case study of the UK construction industry, focusing on structural vulnerabilities. Migrant workers are at the bottom of the hierarchically fragmented labour market, performing outsourced hazardous work. Structural vulnerability focuses on the social structures that create hierarchies and increase risk in the workplace, rather than on individual responsibility or 'cultural' differences of migrant workers. The study considers the structural factors that perpetuate the migrantisation of risk in the UK construction industry, focusing on the structural necessity of low-wage migrant labour, precarious employment and the legal status of migrant workers, and discusses how these three factors interact to increase migrant workers' vulnerability to health and safety. The migrantisation of risk is not only a matter of occupational health and safety or universal workers' compensation, but also of the intertwining of labour migration policies with employment structures that rely on low-wage, low-skilled labour. This calls for proactive measures to address structural risks that go beyond passive declaratory policies that do not exclude migrant workers from education, training or legal systems.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.95-136
• /
• 2018

As the number of precariats grows, their poor labor rights and working conditions are becoming issues of major concern all over the world but how to represent their interests is still controversial. Basically, the union is the institutional mechanism for representing the labor rights. However, it is difficult for workplaceand enterprise-based unions to fully represent the labor rights of precarious workers. Recently, so-called community unions have emerged in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan as independent organizations representing the rights of non-standard workers. Community unions refer to labor unions which organize precarious workers across firms at the regional level. They are known to be suitable for covering the unemployed, job seekers, indirect employment workers, short-term contract workers, and small-firm workers. In South Korea, since the financial crisis in 1997, a dramatic increase in the number of precariats leads to emergence of new types of trade unions such as the Youth Community Union, the Arbeit Workers' Union, the Artist Social Union and the Korea Musician's Union. They have engaged in various activities to guarantee the labor rights of precariats. Recently, researchers have also tried to identify defining characteristics of these new forms of unionism. To expand research on trade unionism in South Korea, this study compares two different types of community unions: the Youth Community Union and the Arbeit Workers' Union. We believe that this attempt can contribute to the research on the alternative labor movement. For this purpose, this study starts with theoretical discussions on community unions, and compares the Youth Community Union with the Arbeit Workers' Union based on the five characteristics of community unionism: membership and organization structure, the recognition struggle, the type or scope of interest, solidarity with other civic organizations, and the repertoire of resistance strategies. Based on this comparative analysis, this study seeks to foresee the possibility of how community unionism will develop in South Korean in the future.

• 한국사회정책
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.429-446
• /
• 2018

The $4^{th}$ Industrial Revolution, symbolizing the explosive innovation of digital technologies, is expected to have a great impact on labor relations and produce a lot of contested issues. The labor-management issues, created by the $4^{th}$ Industrial Revolution, are as follows: (1) employment restructuring, job re-allocation, and skill-reformation, driven by the technological displacement, resetting of worker-machine relationship, and negotiation on labor intensity and autonomy, (2) the legislation of institutional protection for the digital dependent self-employed, derived from the proliferation of platform-mediated labor, and the statutory recognition of their 'workerness', (3) unemployment safety net, income guarantee, and skill formation assistance for precarious workeforce, (4) the protection of worker privacy from workplace surveillance, (5) protecting labor rights of the digital dependent self-employed and prcarious workers and guaranteeing their unionization and collective bargaining. In comparing how labor unions in Western countries have responded to the $4^{th}$ Industrial Revolution, German unions have showed a strategic approach of policy formation toward digital technological innovations by effectively building and utilizing diverse channel of social dialogue and collective bargaining, while those in the US and UK have adopted the traditional approach of organizing and protesting in attempting to protect the interest of platform-mediated workers (i.e. Uber drivers). In light of the best practice demonstrated by German unions, it is necessary to build the process of productive policy consultation among three parties- the government, employers, and labor unions - at multi levels (i.e. workplace, sectoral and national levels), in order to prevent the destructive damage as well as labor-management confrotation, caused by digital technological innovations. In such policy consultation procesess, moreover, the inclusive and integrated approach is required to tackle with diverse problems, derived from the $4^{th}$ Industrial Revolution, in a holistic manner.