Episode 11&12&13: The Disadvantaged Group in the Workplace

Episode 13 of “Misaeng: An Incomplete Life” brings up a sensitive but realistic topic: contract employee VS. permanent employee. Contract employees means that they are generally engaged for only a period of time, and they cannot get stable income then cannot join public social-security schemes as a result (Lee 2014:3). Permanent employees are those who does not need to worry about stability of their jobs, and can also receive employee benefits. Meanwhile, their employment contracts does not have limit of period of work generally. The biggest difference is that the company could fire contract employees with no reason and no compensation, but the treatment of permanent employees could get guaranteed. In this TV show, Jang Geu-rae is the only contract employee among the peers due to his lower educational level. Therefore, when others are talking about annual salary adjustment and raises, he feels upset but could do nothing. He says that he does not care about the salary or the treatment and the only thing he wants to do is working with Sales Team 3, then how’s the performance of Jang Geu-rae? Absolutely he is doing well in his position. Sales team 3 restarts the Jordan case and convinces the whole company because of his idea, and his suggestion also helps Steel team to retrieve the loss from the leaking ship. Even though there are lots of achievements proving this teams need him, he barely has a chance to stay just because of his identity of contract worker.

In the year of 2015, the rate of temporary workers in South Korea was almost the highest among the OECD countries (Hasan 2015). The occurrence of this rule was from Asian financial crisis in the last century, but nowadays the healthy financial status did not change the situation at all until “Misaeng: An Incomplete Life” was published. Based on the previous law, the temporary workers can be only employed for maximum two years with contracts, which is unfair and uncertain for the whole society. Then the government declares a plan to reform the labor market and improve the treatment for contract employees(Danny 2014). As reported by Yonhap, this plan “allow irregular and subcontract workers aged 35 or older to work for up to four years at the same workplace”. Since “Misaeng” focuses on this issue which has direct connection with some white-collar workers, this reform plan is also called “Jang Geu-rae Protection law”.

I cannot give a specific definition what a great TV drama is, but I would say Misaeng is definitely one of the best dramas, because this show not only reflects the real situation of workplace in Korea objectively, but also contributes to the reform of labor protection in reality.

Written By: Yuxin Yang

450 words according to WordCounter

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Here are some discussion questions..

   1. What do you think Jang Geu-rae’s status as a contract employee? Some comments say that Geu-rae should be hired as a permanent worker according to his performance, do you agree with that?

2. Based on the first question, do you think the work position should be related to the education degree? Why or why not.

Bibliography:

Denney, Steven. “South Korea’s New Labor Plan Looks to TV Drama.” The Diplomat, Dec. 31, 2014. https://thediplomat.com/2014/12/television-drama-and-south-koreas-new-labor-plan/ Hasan, Sarah. "Managing Labour Migration to South Korea: Policies and Problems Regarding Migrant Workers." Korea 2011: 175-205. doi:10.1163/9789004219359_011. Lee, Jong woon. “Labour Contracting and Changing Employment Relationships in South Korea.” Development Policy Review, 32 (2014): 449-473.