교직원공제회The Korea Teachers’ Credit Union will discuss granting qualifications for part-time teachers to join the mutual aid association at the representative meeting held on the 20th of this month. Temporary teachers are urging that “exclusion from membership in the mutual aid association be discriminatory, and that they be granted membership eligibility.”
The Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union and the Part-Time Teachers’ Union held a press conference in front of the Korea Teachers’ Credit Union Center in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul on the afternoon of the 15th and urged, “The representative council of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union should guarantee the membership of part-time teachers.” The Teachers’ Credit Union provides financial and welfare services through member contributions. According to the Korea Teachers’ Credit Union Act, educational civil servants, office staff under the Private School Act, educational civil servants, teaching assistants, etc. can also sign up and enjoy the service, but fixed-term teachers cannot sign up. For this reason, fixed-term teachers have been demanding membership in the mutual aid association for a long time. At the National Assembly Education Committee audit held last year, Kang Deuk-gu, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, urged the chairman of the Korea Teachers Mutual Aid Association, saying, “The mutual aid association must guarantee the membership of part-time teachers.”
Park Hye-seong, chairman of the temporary teachers’ union, criticized, “Blocking temporary teachers from joining the mutual aid association does not recognize temporary teachers as members of the school district and is a discriminatory action.” He said, “Please ensure that temporary teachers, who suffer from job insecurity and anxiety about retirement, can sign up so that they can focus on their education.”
According to the union, the Mutual Aid Association commissioned a study from an external research institute to review the adequacy of membership qualifications for part-time teachers. The research results were released in September of last year, and both positive opinions that the capital size will increase by expanding the membership of the mutual aid association and negative opinions that member management is difficult due to relatively frequent job changes were presented.
Based on the results of this study, the Mutual Aid Association will discuss at the Representative Council, the highest decision-making body, whether to grant temporary teachers the right to join the Mutual Aid Association. However, this agenda is classified as other discussion matters rather than resolution or reporting agenda, and even if the discussion results are released, it is unlikely that a conclusion will be reached quickly as related law revision and other processes remain.
