A cleaning worker at the Financial Supervisory Service died from overwork. This is because the number of workers has decreased due to the regularization of regular workers pushed by the Moon Jae-in government, and the existing cleaning workers are overloaded with work. There is a backlash saying, “For whom is regularization?” Due to the rigidity of employment due to regularization, the number of new employees in all public institutions is decreasing.
According to the Korea Economic Daily, a cleaning worker, who had been in charge of cleaning before the general employee’s office hours, lost consciousness and collapsed at the headquarters of the Financial Supervisory Service in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul on the morning of the 6th. 119 paramedics were dispatched to the scene, and CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) first aid was also performed at the scene. Person A did not regain consciousness and reached a state of brain death, and it is known that he died on the 8th.
Fellow cleaning workers complained that Mr. A was not feeling well due to recent overwork. A cleaning worker said, “Since the end of last year, there have been no people, so I am doing the work alone, which would normally be done by two or three people.
Concerns about the shortage of cleaning workers have persisted. Although cleaning workers were working full hours, complaints were pouring in, claiming that garbage was not being properly disposed of within the FSS due to a sharp drop in manpower. Garbage bins in public spaces such as in front of shops and parking lots have been completely removed. On an anonymous bulletin board of the Financial Supervisory Service, articles such as “cleaning workers struggled and cleaned it, but it was much dirtier than before” and “the sanitary condition on the way to work is incomparable to what it was a year ago” was posted.
It is analyzed that this is the result of the FSS converting the cleaning workers, which had been used for service employment since July last year, into regular workers. In accordance with the Moon Jae-in government’s guidelines for regularization of non-regular workers in public institutions, the FSS established a subsidiary ‘FSS Facility Management’ in July last year to hire cleaning workers and security guards as regular workers. Accordingly, the subsidiary made regular cleaning workers in April. Although the Financial Supervisory Service is not a public institution, it has been included in the guideline recommendations because of its public nature.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service, the number of cleaning workers decreased from 50 immediately before the establishment of FSS facility management to 42 (as of this month). Cleaning workers explained, “Considering the number of FSS employees and the size of the building, the number should be at least 70 to 80, but the subsidiary is making excuses for the cost burden, making the treatment worse and reducing the number of employees.” The total number of employees of the Financial Supervisory Service is about 2300. The cost burden is increasing due to unreasonable regularization, and the number of employees is decreasing.
As a result, existing workers are overloaded with work. In addition, it is known that the treatment of the subsidiaries is worsening, such as not paying overtime pay to existing workers and reducing rest facilities. The number of security guards employed by subsidiaries, such as cleaning workers, also decreased from 49 to 48.
An official from the Financial Supervisory Service said, “The deceased worker usually suffers from heart disease, so it will take some time to investigate the exact cause of death.”
Rigidity in employment and consequent deterioration in working conditions are not unique to the Financial Supervisory Service. The total number of new hires by public institutions increased from 22,706 in 2017, the first year of the Moon Jae-in administration, to 33,887 in 2018, and 41,327 in 2019. have. Recruitment will gradually decrease due to unreasonable regularization.
Reporter Min-ki Gu [email protected]