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Recommendation to Improve Human Rights of Cleaning Service Employee (CS in the Public Sector) [2007] KRNHRC 17 (1 January 2007)

Since the economic crisis in the late 1990s, flexibility in the Korean labor market has
increased. In that process, many jobs including cleaning service have been classified as
non-core tasks and employers have been outsourcing such non-core jobs. Outsourcing
tasks are usually fulfilled by the disadvantaged such as women and the elderly. Therefore,
the Commission conducted a research on working conditions of cleaners in 2006, and
recommended to improve human rights conditions of cleaning service employees.

In order to address problems such as low wages and restrictions on fundamental labor
rights facing outsourcing CSE in the public sector, the Commission recommended that
administrative inspection and supervision on employers adopting a total wage system
below the minimum wage should be strengthened, laws to protect outsourcing workers
currently not protected by the Labor Act should be enacted, and a quasi-public
organization (e.g. a facilities management corporation established by local authorities)
should be established to integrate facilities management jobs including cleaning currently
scattered across many public organizations in order to ensure job security.

In addition, the Commission recommended that statutes on national contracts should be revised
in order to improve the lowest price bidding system and extend the penalty period for violations of
law to enhance legal compliance effectiveness, and that resting places and welfare facilities
(cafeteria, shower room, etc.) should be improved and or newly established to protect human dignity of CSE.