Hankyoreh data
On the morning of the 26th, three days before Chuseok, a taxi worker who had been protesting in front of a taxi company in Seoul attempted to set himself on fire. The argument he made during his one-man protest was, “Enforce the full salary system for taxis according to the law.” After a two-year legal battle, he was recognized as unfairly dismissed and reinstated in November of last year. He chose to set himself on fire 10 months after returning to work due to the unchanging reality of taxi work. The Public Transport Workers’ Union and the Labor Party held a press conference in front of Ha Transportation in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul on the 27th and urged, “Punish the business owners who forced taxi workers to set themselves on fire.” The previous morning, at 8:26 a.m., Bang Bang-hwan (55), a worker at this company, attempted to set himself on fire. He is being treated for burns on 73% of his body. The union said, “(Mr. Bang) is in very critical condition.” It was the 227th day of Mr. Bang’s one-man protest. The union claims that behind Mr. Bang’s attempt to set himself on fire, there was a ‘death penalty system’ that continued in a modified form even after the revision of the Taxi Act. The private payment system is a system in which company taxi drivers pay a portion of their daily income to the company and then take the remaining excess. When income does not meet the private payment, taxi drivers have to make up for the shortfall with their own money, which leads to harmful effects such as speeding to avoid this, so it was abolished in January 2020. Instead, the company introduced a full management system (salary system) in which the company collects all of the taxi drivers’ income and pays them a fixed salary like a regular company. However, it is said that the reality Mr. Bang experienced was far from a full salary system. In an article published in the monthly magazine ‘Situation and Labor’ last July, Mr. Bang said, “I drive a taxi 40 hours a week (as per the purpose of the monthly salary system). However, after checking the pay stub, (the company) is paying 1 million won, which is less than the minimum wage.” This incident arose when the company proposed to Mr. Bang, who had returned to work, to sign a new employment contract that included a modified form of private payment, ‘standard transportation income,’ and Mr. Bang rejected it. The company sets daily performance standards (KRW 193,000 as of 2019) and provides that disciplinary action will be taken if the standards are not met three times in a row. An official from the taxi branch of the Public Transport Union said, “To meet the standard transportation revenue, you must carry 25 passengers a day,” and added, “The standards that encourage excessive driving, such as the private payment system, are themselves illegal.” As Mr. Bang refused to enter into an employment contract with this content, “Mr. Bang’s wages were limited to 3 hours and 30 minutes per day (the time the worker agreed with the company to work during the period) according to the employment contract concluded before dismissal (2019). “It was paid accordingly,” H Transportation explained. Currently, this company has an employment contract that stipulates 40 hours per week (6 days of work) as the prescribed working hours. In the end, Mr. Bang was prepared to have his wages reduced and did not give up on his intention to implement a full monthly salary system. “I want to have pride in my taxi job,” he wrote in a post he left behind during his one-man protest. Mr. Bang started fighting by pointing out these problems of taxi companies when he founded a labor union with his colleagues in 2019. The following year, Mr. Bang was fired from the company, and after a two-year legal battle, he was reinstated in November of last year after the Supreme Court recognized the company’s unfair dismissal. Angered by the fact that the company he returned to after his reinstatement did not change from the situation before his dismissal, he went on a one-man protest again. At the time of his reinstatement, Mr. Bang said in an interview with Hankyoreh 21, “I am going back to the battlefield. But unless we overcome this, the field cannot change.” After the press conference that day, the union requested a meeting with the representative of H Transportation, but the company refused. When the company demanded the union leave and the police arrived, four union officials were arrested. A representative of H Transportation told the Hankyoreh, “If there is no standard transportation revenue standard, can the company make a proper profit?” Reporter Kim Hae-jeong [email protected]
2023-09-27 11:07:49
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