Sanitation workers protested against the university, claiming poor labor conditions and hardships of life, for three days from Jul. 25 to 28.
The university recently has changed the method of selecting janitorial service company (from private contact to the lowest tender method) for more fairness and transparency. Consequently, “Gyeong-Po” was selected as the new janitor service company instead of the former company, “Geum-Won”, and the contracted price was reduced from 1.77 billion KRW to 1.58 billion KRW. However, sanitation workers insisted because the university only specified bidding condition as “over the minimum wages”, not “over current wages”, thus labor conditions became worse. The new labor conditions include a 20% reduced wage and abolished support for children’s school expenses.
Although the university explained that the change in method was only to promote transparency and fairness, workers argued that the university is responsible for letting the companies bid for the lowest tender without assurance of existing labor condition. Similarly, public opinion has also called for social morality.