The Present Status and Tasks of the Three Labor Rights of Public Officials: With review of the Constitutional Court's decisions at the time of enforcement of ILO Convention No. 87 and No. 98

Abstract

The Constitution of Korea has long laid down public officials’ right to independent association, collective bargaining, and collective action (the “Right”). Nevertheless, the Public Officials Union Act (the “POUA”) did not come into force until 2006. Despite the enforcement of the POUA, the Right were not practically guaranteed. Public officials raised the issue of unconstitutionality of the POUA from various perspectives to the Constitutional Court, but the Court defended the protection of the vocational public officials system and ruled that most of them were constitutional. In the process, public officials insisted that the international standards for the RIGHT of the ILO Conventions should be applied for these cases, but the Constitutional Court repeatedly refused to apply them since they were not effective in Korea territory. In other words, the Constitutional Court has established Korean standards that are far from international labor standards. Meanwhile, on April 20, 2022, the ILO No. 87 and No. 98 Conventions finally came into effect in Korea. In line with the enforcement of these Conventions, the National Assembly revised the POUA to expand the scope of public officials' union membership, and introduced a working hours exemption system. However, the provisions under the POUA related to the Right, which the Constitutional Court declared constitutional, will be issues in the future after the fundamental Conventions enters into force. I hope that the Constitutional Court will deeply understand international labor standards and ensure the Right to fit for us.