KHMU Accelerates its Struggle to Stop Performance-based Annual Salary System
○ The government is planning to introduce the performance-based salary system to public organizations so as to dismiss less performed workers. Against this attempt, KHMU has been leading strong struggles.
○ Up to now, the performance-based salary system was limitedly applied to executives but at the beginning of this year, the government announced that the system will be applied more extensively to 70% of all employees. The piece wage represents 20-30% of the total annual salary and the highest wage will be twice higher than the lowest according to the government’s plan.
○ The government designated around 47 public corporations and semi-governmental agencies as leading organizations that apply the performance-based salary system and throughout April, the employees have been suffering the pressure by employers that they need to show greater outcome. State-run veterans’ affairs hospitals (VAH) in five cities nationwide are some of those where workers have been working under the heavy pressure.
○ VAH employers rejected to negotiate with the trade unions. Instead, they held information sessions and collected agreement from individual workers to implement the performance-based salary system, resulting in serious conflicts with labor unions that have tried to stop the move.
○ Once the performance-based salary system is introduced, the medical fee will likely increase and collaborative culture among staff will collapse, decreasing medical services quality. And it ultimately weakens the public nature of medical and healthcare services. Hence, KHMU leaders have been joining in all-night demonstrations against the oppressive salary system. In addition, in the evening on April 15, at the lobby of the Central Veterans’ Affair Hospital in Dunchon-dong, Seoul, around 1,000 KHMU members held a resolution rally to prevent the performance-based salary system and easy dismissal policy from being introduced; and to stop oppressions on workers.
○ At the same time, on April 18, it organized a discussion session about possible problems of performance-based salary system. It also plans to host a large-scale demonstration before the Korea Veterans Health Service on April 29.