Social service agent
The Social Service Agent is a system of compulsory employment in South Korea. It is the country's largest type of transitional and alternative civilian service system. It opened on January 1, 1995. Originally called Public Service Worker, it was renamed in 2013 due to an amendment to military service law.
South Korean government runs conscription. It checks every South Korean male citizens' body to see if they are qualified to serve in the military. It classifies draftees from grade 1 to grade 6 based on their physical, mental condition. Grade 1 to grade 3 are qualified to serve in the military. Grade 4 to grade 6 are disqualified from service in military because of their physical or mental limitations. People who get grade 4 have to serve as social service agents after 4 weeks of basic military training. If a draftee gets grade 4 because of mental limitations, then he is exempted from 4 weeks of basic military training and put in to the social service immediately.
History
Prior to 1995, the system was called Standby Replacement. The current social service agent was a standby replacement. Later, the standby replacement system was abolished, creating a public service worker system.In 2012 the term public service worker was deleted, and the administrator's clerk was replaced with the social service agent. The international cooperation agency and the art and physical education agency among public service workers were separated under the social service system.
The social service agent's five-day training course was implemented as a camp in 2015. The place is 'Chungcheongbuk-do Boeun-gun/ social service training center, which also lasts five days, over 44 hours.
Compensation
Social workers get little pay. Second jobs are prohibited until the worker documents their needs and is granted a job permit. The salary paid to social workers in accounting is basically the same as for those on active duty. Only lunch and some transportation are expenseable and only on work days.As of 2018, the monthly salary was 300,000-400,000 won complemented by a small lunch fee. For reference, the minimum cost of living for one person in 2017 was 991,759 won.
A double-employment permit system is available for socially disadvantaged workers, although this is similar to compulsory double labor for socially disadvantaged workers.
The Constitutional Court ruled that active duty soldiers be provided with ritual stocks from the military, and that the military can allow salaries below the minimum wage.
In April 2017, former social worker " said, "The current social service worker's remuneration system is significantly below the minimum cost of living, violating the right to equality, property rights, and human life." The Constitutional Court of Korea issued the Constitutional Court of Korea, and for the first time in the history of the Republic of Korea, the Constitutional Court for the remuneration of social service personnel was referred to the Institutional Psychology.
Protest
According to the International Labour Organization, the social service personnel system is a form of forced labor. According to the ILO 29 Convention, military conscription itself does not qualify as forced labor, but national mobilization for non-military work, such as industrial technical personnel, social service agent does. South Korea did not join the 29/105 Convention, which prohibits forced labour. South Korea criticized the Japanese military's kidnapping comfort women and Hashima' s forced recruitment of Koreans as forced labor, but rejects the comparison with the social service system. Of the 187 member states of the ILO, nine have not ratified the ILO Core Conventions 29 and 105, including the Republic of Korea.On May 30, 2019, former social worker "Lee da Hoon," together with dozens of citizens, held a press conference in front of the Constitutional Court to urge the abolition of the social service system and ratification of ILO Core Convention 105. He called for a constitutional appeal trial for the social service system.
The 50 attendees included current and former social service personnel. They advocated the end of the social service personnel system that forces young people who cannot qualify for military service due to physical limitations to carry out other labor. They also urged the government to ratify ILO Core Conventions 29 and 105.
The Republic of Korea and the National Assembly introduced the National Defense Service in 1969. Its main task is to carry out labor unrelated to military affairs and is inconsistent with the purpose and intent of the military service system. As of 2019 hundreds of billions of treasury losses had occurred. The system extracted labor from nearly four million men in their twenties.
Social workers are remanded to assist administrative agencies and social welfare facilities. Regular employees delegate tasks to social service workers. Social service personnel are not trained to perform such tasks, with unknown effects on results.
Most social workers serve in social welfare facilities with a level 4 award for mental or physical illness.
In 2017 protestors solicited a constitutional petition for remuneration of social service workers, but this was not granted.
Protestors claimed that politicians and others were allowed to take advantage of this system to escape military service even though that had no physical impairments.
South Korean government insisted that the social service system is not forced labor, but each time the ILO Secretariat issued a statement that the system violates the Convention.
South Korean government modified parts of the social service system in October 2019, so social service agents can "choose" to serve as a military personnel if they want to - even though they were disqualified to serve in military because of their physical, mental limitations in the first place. The government insists that it is no longer forced labour, because they give them a choice to whether serve in military or serve in civil sector.
Form of service
According to the service organization and service field, it is divided into day work, day and night work, and camp work. Day work is performed from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm on weekdays. Night duty is performed according to the duty schedule previously negotiated by the service director.Absent four weeks of basic military training, workers are authorized to perform civil service instead. Workers can request a new worksite after one year of service or to escape corruption or in a hardship position.
Social service agents work in social service, health/medicine, education, environmental safety or administration.
This sector is mostly responsible for the care of disabled children or the elderly with dementia. The environmental safety sector is responsible for managing facilities such as reservoirs and sewage.
Social service agents working for the NIS in administration must pass through a competitive screening. Once stationed, if they leak work details, they can be sentenced to imprisonment.
Claims of abuse
A social worker serving in Seocho 1-dong Community Center in 2016 was found dead on June 22, 2016. The media reported suicide, but it is not yet known how they died. The dead worker was found to have experienced severe depression.In December 2019, it was confirmed that a civil servant who had been hired for less than one to two months had instructed a social worker to sort 35,000 masks by himself. The relevant official posted a letter stating that a public service worker was unable to perform this task. "I asked a public service worker to distribute the goods in envelopes, and I had a hard look," he said. This stimulated a controversy, leading the official to delete his post and offer an apology. "I apologize for not thinking in advance that rash behavior will hurt someone," he said. "There was a problem with my behavior entirely, and through conversations I learned a false perception I didn't even think about. I will change my preoccupied thoughts and actions. ”
An anonymous former social service agent published a website written in English to reveal how social service agents are treated in South Korea.
Foreign trade impacts
Lee Dahoon submitted 13 chapters of amicus curiae briefs on 9 January 2019 to the panel of experts during the final stage of the European Union-Korea free trade agreement dispute resolution process proposed by the EU in the absence of ILO ratification efforts.The Expert Panel for Dispute Resolution was to begin on 30 December 2019, and finish before 30 March 2020, when a report on whether the system violated the FTA. In that case the EU can implements sanctions, such as tariffs, IPR regulations, and foreign investment reductions.