KJC Korea
Journal Central

The aim of this study is to examine empirical evidence to show how nonstandard workers and bogus self-employment workers are in precarious work condition. We constituted criteria for measuring precarious work of nonstandard workers and bogus self-employment workers based on preceding researches and ILO(2012a), and analysed the extent of precarious work using the longitudinal data. The precarious work criteria consist of two subcriteria, namely insecurity in employment contract and working condition. First, the precarious employment contract is subdivided into a contract term and employment relationship. Second, the condition of precarious work is subdivided into three domains; low wage, poor protection from termination of employment, lack of access to social benefits, limited to exercise labor rights. We analysed empirical data, the Korea Welfare Panel of 2010-2014(six-wave panel). Six-year trend of analysis of precarious work is as follows. The nonstandard workers, especially termed workers, part-timers are continuously increased and bogus self-employer are highly increased in recent. The finding applying the criteria of employment contract and working condition is that non-standard workers are more precarious than standard workers. Diverse forms of nonstandard workers are differently increased in insecurity by two criteria. An aspect of employment contract criteria considered, all types of nonstandard workers and self-employers deteriorated continuously. Although the difference on the type of nonstandard workers, the level of insecurity in access to social benefits remained high on working condition. Also, bogus self-employers are exposed to a high exclusion of social security during 6 years.

Social policy in Korea is not only policy problems but also ideological and cultural ones. It is required to investigate the ideological and cultural characteristics in Korea. The purpose of this study is to investigate the implications of social policy in Confucian political thoughts in pre-Qin period which have been formed as one of historical and cultural traditions in Korea. The implications of social policy in Confucian political thoughts in pre-Qin period have been suggested such as follows. First, the Confucian political thoughts in pre-Qin period emphasis economic policy and educational policy in boundaries of social policy. Secondlythe Confucian political thoughts in pre-Qin period and social policy share the values in social policy such as esteeming human being and equity. Third, the Confucian political thoughts in pre-Qin period have the understanding foundations of welfare state.Finally the Confucian political thoughts in pre-Qin period suggest the clue of welfare society replacing the existing welfare state.

This study examines the changes in income level and occupation for the last 6 years among those who are still unemployed after having been dismissed from the Ssangyong Motors Company in 2009. So far, regular workers who work for a large manufacturing enterprises have been categorized as ‘insiders’ of a dual labor market in Korea. This paper suggests, however, how the socioeconomic status of the regular workers immediately have been changed after the 2009 redundancy. We surveyed 187 layoff workers who are still not re-employed and tracked their social economic status. We discuss on the limitation in employment protection insurance and active labour market policy in Korean dual labour market structure.

The 「Employment Insurance Act」 was introduced 20 years ago in Korea. Employment insurance system was the latest one among the four major types of social insurance system and probably it has shown the significant developments. However, the employment insurance system still has some serious problems such as the low level and short term of benefit, and above all, the wide ‘blind spot’ problem in the application. This article tries to find out the way to overcome the blind spot in the employment insurance system and to suggest the alternative way. The study on the blind spot in the employment insurance system has been yet mainly focused on the ‘problem of institutional application’, while this study will be mainly concentrated on the formation of the principals and their active roles in the so-called ‘Ghent System’. The Ghent System is known as the voluntary unemployment insurance model operated by the trade union in the Nordic European countries. This research will be concentrated on the comparative analysis to promote the active participation of the principals in the unemployment insurance system. The Ghent System itself is divided into the voluntary model by the trade union in Sweden, Finland and Denmark and the compulsory model by the law in Belgium since 1944. The Ghent System countries keep commonly the high level of the application of unemployment insurance without the blind spot problem as well as the high rate of organization of the trade union. It shows also, how this Ghent System serves to the stable development of the welfare state.

This study analyzed the dynamic changes of “publicness” in the public pension fund investment strategy from a historical perspective. At the beginning, the publicness was one of the core principle of fund investment strategy in the form of depositing in the government budget. This study revealed how the publicness was interpreted and realized in public pension fund investment, why it was criticized and how it has changed over time in South Korea. This process shows that the government, the market and the civil society have each developed the different understanding on publicness. It also provides us an implication on the current argument over the characteristics of public pension fund.

Access to comprehensive, quality health care services is important for the achievement of health equity and for increasing the quality of a healthy life for everyone. But the remaining barriers to accessing health services such as ‘lack of availability, high cost, lack of insurance coverage’ can accelerate transition to poverty especially near poor with chronic diseases. On the basis of this situation on health care, the main purpose of this study is to analyze the inequality that can result on the near poor families with chronic diseases. The study has found out that the treatment of chronic diseases causes financial burden and insufficient medical care, which especially in the near poor sector. Therefore to prevent catastrophic health expenditure and unmet health needs, the improvement of medical security system and relating policy is required.

Social service voucher programs introduced in 2007 aim to establish a social service industry through promoting social service market. During the last 9 years since the introduction of voucher programs, the provision of social services has been expanded. New social service jobs have also been created. The purpose of this study is to evaluate social service voucher programs according to its three stated policy aims: expansion of social services, creation of social service market and improving the quality of social services. According to statistics of social service voucher programs and findings from advanced empirical research, the establishment of social service industry led by private capital has not been successful. The social service market created by voucher programs is heavily depending on government finance rather than sustained by an increased private investment. The enlargement of demand is limited. The social service market is also characterized by suppliers of small-scale businesses and low-paid jobs. To improve social service provision, the primary role of government should be further extended.

This study aims to understand married woman with young children by classifying them by subjective consciousness related to work and family life. To achieve research purpose, this study analyzes subjective consciousness including value, preference, needs, recognition, attitudes, and beliefs related to work and family which affect their labor participation choice using Q methodology. As a result of the factor analysis, four types of married women with young children have been found. They are ‘the more, the better’, ‘highly focused on family value and life’, ‘searching for extrication’, and ‘co-balancing work and family life’ types. Through the results of this study, a lot of subjective factors, such as the recognition of the parenting role, meaning of the work and career continuity, husband’s attitude and personalities for child-rearing and household, etc, affect the labor participation choices. This study examined different types of subjective consciousness related to work and family, and analyzed how those types as a configuration of subjective factors make their labor participation choices differently.