KHMU Info No. 6(July 18, 2018)

The Korean Medical and Health Workers’ Union (KHMU) The First Round of Joint Labor-Management Policy Consultation Session in 2018

 

The Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union (KHMU) and the Employer Association in the Health and Medical Industry (in process) (EAHM) held < The First Round of Joint Labor-Management Policy Session in 2018> at the auditorium of Hi Seoul Youth Hostel from 2:00 pm on June 11(Wed), 2018.

 

The policy session titled “How to address issues: nurses’ working conditions and low staffing level” was jointly hosted by KHMU and EAHM, participated by around 150 representatives from labor and management. The session started with the opening comment of assistant secretary Han Mi-jung, followed by greetings from both side, thematic presentations by Medical Resource Policy Team Manager Gwak Soon-hun at the Ministry of Health and Welfare and comments on current policies by the participating representatives. And with the plenary discussion, the session was wrapped up.

 

In her greeting remarks, President Na sun Ja said, “Since 2012, the labor and the management have been organizing policy conferences and workshops. KHMU and President Moon Jae-in reached an agreement on policies during his election campaign, to create more jobs, address severely short number of workers, extend nursing-care integrated services and improve maternity protection.”

 

In addition, she also noted that last year, labor and management made a joint-declaration about tripartite cooperation and as a result, the Presidential Committee on Jobs has been discussing possible establishment of a special committee about health and medical sector.

And she emphasized that at this juncture, it is important for both parties to discuss policy alternatives. She also added that while the discussion about system improvement is going on, we see “emergent situations” in the field everyday lives at the moment.

 

She continued, “For mid and long-term challenges, we may discuss issues with government at the Presidential Committee on Jobs, but we need to address urgent problems on site, which led us to conduct the Four Out campaign to reduce free labor, fake certification, bullying, and atypical jobs. With today’s session, we hope to work together with employers for hospitals where patients are safe and labor is respected.”

Following the remarks by the employer side, in the thematic presentation, Mr. Gwak from the Ministry talked about “comprehensive measures to improve working conditions of nurses and job creation policy in the health and medical sector.” He explained about the current situations on nurses’ working conditions and measures to improve them as well as future policy direction.

Those representatives from both sides had a chance to share their ideas about polices specific to different subsectors and also discussed better alternatives. The Second Round of Policy Session, which will take place at 2:00 pm on July 25 , will be a venue to discuss “How to improve medical institution evaluation certificate system.”

 

<Image 1> The KHMU moved to another location on June 29 and invited friends and comrades for celebration on July 3. Around 200, including central and branch leadership gathered there. It purchased a whole building only in four months after raising funds from the union members.

 

 

<Image 2> Eight activists from the Mongolian Health and Medical Union visited the KHMU from July 2 to 6, 2018.

 

New address:

KHMU Bldg, 10 Beodeunaru-ro 16-gil, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, 07230 Korea

See the articles at English page;  http://bogun.nodong.org/english/