Public Services International (PSI) extends our solidarity and respect to the striking “irregular” workers of the Korean National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) customer service center and their union, the KPTU. The 30 million workers around the world that we represent, recognise that outsourcing of public services jobs is both a violation of the right to decent work and a harmful erosion of quality public services that all workers are entitled to.

No worker should be forced to live with persistent insecurity that arises from outsourcing, and we commend workers at the NHIS and their union for taking action to end precarious work in Korea.

We recall that, when President Moon Jae-in was elected in 2017, he rightfully recognised that outsourcing and temporary jobs had increased economic inequality and polarisation. Consequently, he committed to zero irregular jobs in the public sector during his term. However, four years later, the NHIS customer service center workers are still fighting for regularisation of their employment.

Workers who support the delivery of national health insurance schemes, like the NHIS customer service center workers, are delivering critical public services throughout a pandemic and should be respected, recognised, and entitled to decent work. Their work is core public sector work, directly linked to the Korean people's basic rights to social protection. It should never be outsourced. And people’s critical personal data should never be captured by the private sector. The outsourcing of core public services leads to disastrous outcomes for both the public and workers.

We know that in this dangerous era of the COVID-19 pandemic, workers delivering public services have been hesitant to take industrial action. Nevertheless, 1,000 workers of the KPTU NHIS customer service center branch were compelled to take a third round of strike action on 1st July and, when the NHIS failed to take action, the branch first vice chair took the drastic step to commence a hunger strike on 23 July.

We are concerned to hear that the rally on the 23rd of July was declared illegal, despite the measures taken by KPTU to comply with all social distancing requirements. This appears to be a violation of the right to freedom of assembly and association.

The pandemic has increased public appreciation for public services and the workers who deliver them. These workers deserve more than applause, they deserve decent, secure work and for political leaders to keep their promises. The pandemic has created an opportunity for governments to decide on the future path - to stand with workers and communities and deliver a healthier, fairer order where public services, decent work, and the ability to care for all define the new era. Or to continue on the path of inequality, corporate control and injustice.

When governments outsource jobs, they make a political decision to decrease workers’ wages and security and increase the power and wealth of the obscenely rich. PSI joins the KPTU in demanding the regularisation of the NHIS customer service center workers immediately. Your fight is a fair, principled fight for better public services and a better future. We will continue to stand with you and support your struggle for a better, fairer future for all workers and all of Korea.