Members of the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union hold a press conference for the protection of labor rights in front of Sejong Center in Seoul on March 25, ahead of the Social Care Workers' Day on March 30. Yonhap News

March 30 is “Social Care Workers' Day.” The government has been celebrating this day as “Social Workers' Day” since 2011, when it enacted a law to improve the treatment and status of social workers. Social care workers call it Social Care Workers' Day.

While the government emphasizes the importance of care, it has actually outsourced care work to the private sector. Social care workers are being exhausted day by day due to low wages, intense work, and an unstable working environment filled with temporary positions. Of course, the future of care cannot be guaranteed.

On March 29, the Kyunghyang Shinmun met with Yoo Cheong-woo (31), a six-year social worker at a welfare center in Seoul, Kim (31), a five-year social worker at a child welfare facility, Kim Hee-ra (31), head of the Social Welfare Branch of the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union (KPTU), and Oh Dae-hee (31), a 10-year disability activity support worker at the KPTU who is struggling with the disbandment of the Seoul Public Agency for Social Welfare. They agreed that the “public sector, including the government and local governments, should be responsible for care.”

The biggest anxiety faced by social care workers is that they "don't know when they will lose their jobs." The representative temporary positions in this field are short-term pilot projects by central and local governments. “When a national or local government runs a pilot project for a care project, they hire non-regular workers for a limited period of time, and it is difficult to get job security after that period ends,” said Yoo. ”I also worked as a non-regular worker at an agency before, and I decided to change my job because of the job insecurity. Social care workers who have moved from place to place while working as temporary workers often find that their work experience is not recognized by their next employer.

The value of their labor is also not recognized in terms of wages. The Ministry of Health and Welfare recommends the appropriate level through the "Guidelines for Labor Costs for Workers at Social Welfare Facilities,” but there are no penalties for not following it. “Since it is a recommendation, it is possible to set (wages) lower than the guidelines without violating the minimum wage,” Kim said, adding, “Even the starting salary of the lowest paid workers barely exceeds the minimum wage.”

Many workers also endure “free labor.“ Kim said, "I work in shifts at a child welfare facility from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. the next day, but I don't receive night pay, holiday pay, or overtime pay at all." Kim added, "I'm working for social welfare, but they impose unfair working conditions on the workers."

The most common compliments they receive are “you're doing a good job” and “you're like angels.” However, the perception of social services as a service based on “good intentions” also hinders the workers. Kim said, “Because of the perception that the nature of the job is service, many people don't know if they can seek redress for labor rights violations.” Yoo said, “Although workers in the social welfare sector are people who support the rights of the weak, they do not keep their rights well. If we claim our rights through a labor union, we are sometimes called 'selfish.’”

Due to poor labor conditions, the outflow of manpower is inevitable. Oh said, “In the long run, quality jobs should be created and workers should be attracted, but right now, only the weak in the labor market gather and endure it.” Kim, who recently took a leave of absence from her job at a welfare center where she was forced to engage in unfair labor practices and was transferred, said, “I wonder if I will return to the industry and endure such working conditions.” According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare's “2023 Survey on Compensation Levels and Working Conditions of Social Care Workers,” one in three social care workers (31.6 percent) said they intend to change jobs.

When social care workers' jobs are not stable, the damage will inevitably fall to service users. What is important in social welfare is continuity. If a social welfare pilot project ends abruptly, workers lose their jobs and users lose their welfare, creating a vicious cycle. “Rather than closely examining the positive impact on the users, the government suddenly cuts the budget or abolishes the policy if it does not reach the quantitative performance indicators set by the government,” Kim said.

Social care workers interviewed said that governments and local governments outsource the majority of social services to the private sector and are not accountable. This leads to both poor working conditions and poor quality of care. The government and local governments are the largest funders of social services, but they are not held accountable for what happens in the process of providing services. Kim said, “The welfare center I worked at is officially part of the local government, but they don't take responsibility for anything, and they don't seem to be thinking about policies for the children in the center.” Oh said, “The care entrusted to the private sector is subject to market logic without social responsibility and values.”

In the end, social welfare urgently needs to strengthen the publicity that the government is responsible for. “The reasons why the public sector should be responsible for care are clear,” Oh said. It is to prevent the care infrastructure from collapsing due to various circumstances, such as budget and regime change, and to prevent users from suffering losses.”

What is care? Yoo said, "Care is everywhere in everyday life, and I, too, receive care from my family and colleagues in everyday life. We saw during the coronavirus pandemic how devastating it was when there was a gap in care.”

A “caring society” should start by ensuring the rights of social care workers, whom the entire society agreed as essential laborers, to be minimally protected at least.