🚨 School Strike Prevention Act

Today Korean Social News for Beginners | 2025.11.07

0️⃣ Essential Public Service Designation, Student Protection, and Labor Rights Debate

📌 School Meal Strike Controversy Spreads... Growing Demand for 'School Strike Prevention Act'

💬 As the National School Non-regular Workers' Union continued its strike, causing school meal disruptions, the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations called for the quick passage of the 'School Strike Prevention Act'. Some schools had to stop serving dinner, and school staff had to serve meals themselves, creating ongoing confusion. The teachers' association argued that meal services, childcare, and health services should be designated as essential public services to protect students' health and learning rights. The amendment to the Labor Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act, proposed by Representative Jeong Seong-guk of the People Power Party, includes content to designate school services directly related to students' lives and safety as essential public services. However, labor groups are opposing this, saying that restrictions on the right to strike could violate constitutional rights. Balancing the public interest of educational services with labor rights protection will be the key issue in future discussions.

💡 Summary

• The School Strike Prevention Act is a bill that designates school meal services, childcare, and health services as essential public services.
• Its purpose is to maintain minimum staffing during strikes to protect student safety and learning rights.
• Finding the balance between student protection and labor rights is the key issue.

1️⃣ Definition

The School Strike Prevention Act means a bill that designates services directly related to students' lives and safety in schools, such as meal services, childcare, and health services, as essential public services, ensuring minimum staffing is maintained even during strikes. Its official name is the 'Partial Amendment to the Labor Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act', proposed by Representative Jeong Seong-guk of the People Power Party.

The core of this bill is to designate certain school tasks that significantly affect students' health, safety, and daily life as essential maintenance services. Even if a strike occurs, the goal is to ensure minimum staffing for meal services, childcare, and health services so that school functions are not completely paralyzed.

💡 Why is this important?

• Students' right to learn and right to health are basic rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
• Disruptions in meal services and childcare directly affect students' daily lives and safety.
• We need to find a balance between the public interest of educational services and workers' labor rights.
• This is an important bill that could change the paradigm of labor-management relations in education.

2️⃣ Background and Issues of the School Strike Prevention Act

📕 National School Non-regular Workers' Union Strike and Meal Service Disruptions

• School meal disruptions have caused inconvenience for students and parents. The main situations are as follows:

  • The National School Non-regular Workers' Union conducted strikes demanding better treatment.
  • In some schools, dinner service was stopped as meal service workers participated in the strike.
  • School staff had to serve meals themselves, or parents had to prepare lunch boxes.
  • Students in schools with dormitories or those needing after-school care faced particular difficulties.

• Concerns from the education community and parents grew. The main problems are as follows:

  • School meals are not just about providing food, but are directly related to growing students' health.
  • Childcare gaps place a heavy burden on dual-income families and can lead to student safety issues.
  • When school nurses strike, emergency situations become difficult to handle, posing risks to life and safety.
  • Educational groups, including the teachers' association, argued that students' basic rights should not be violated by union activities.

📕 Controversy Over Essential Public Service Designation

• The education community is strongly demanding essential public service designation. The main arguments are as follows:

  • The teachers' association emphasized that school meal services, childcare, and health services are directly related to students' lives and safety.
  • They argue that just as railways, hospitals, and electricity are designated as essential public services under current law, core school tasks should receive the same protection.
  • They believe maintaining minimum staffing during strikes can reduce harm to students.
  • They demand that legal grounds be established for education offices to deploy substitute workers.

• Labor groups are strongly opposing restrictions on the right to strike. The main counterarguments are as follows:

  • They worry that the three labor rights guaranteed by the Constitution (right to organize, collective bargaining, and collective action) could be violated.
  • They point out that essential public service designation weakens workers' bargaining power, making it difficult to guarantee real rights.
  • They argue it's unfair to restrict only the right to strike when the poor treatment of school non-regular workers has not improved.
  • They emphasize that, according to the principle of proportionality, restrictions on basic rights should be minimal, and other alternatives should be explored first.

📕 Legislative Discussion in the National Assembly and Social Conflict

• The bill is being reviewed in the National Assembly. The main contents are as follows:

  • The amendment to the Labor Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act proposed by Representative Jeong Seong-guk is pending in the National Assembly.
  • The bill includes content to add school meal services, childcare, and health services to essential public services.
  • If designated as essential maintenance services, labor and management must negotiate minimum staffing, and if no agreement is reached, the Labor Relations Commission decides.
  • The bill is being reviewed mainly by the Education Committee, with significant differences between the ruling and opposition parties.

• It's difficult to reach a social consensus. The main challenges are as follows:

  • The key issue is how to harmonize the two values of student protection and labor rights protection.
  • Specific standards are needed for how far to extend essential public service designation.
  • Other institutional mechanisms to compensate for unions' weakened bargaining power need to be discussed together.
  • Customized system design considering the special nature of educational public services is required.

💡 Key Issues of the School Strike Prevention Act

1. Student Basic Rights vs. Labor Rights: Balancing students' learning and health rights with workers' right to strike
2. Scope of Essential Public Services: Which tasks should be designated as essential public services
3. Minimum Staffing Standards: Who will decide the minimum staffing for essential maintenance services and how
4. Alternative Measures: Other mechanisms to protect workers' rights when the right to strike is restricted
5. Role of Education Offices: Authority and responsibility of education offices to deploy substitute workers during strikes

3️⃣ Expected Effects and Future Challenges of the Bill

✅ Student Safety and Learning Rights Protection

• It can prevent school function paralysis. The main effects are as follows:

  • Minimum staffing in meal services, childcare, and health services ensures students' daily lives.
  • Growing students' nutrition supply is not interrupted, protecting their right to health.
  • Childcare burdens on dual-income families are reduced, allowing parents' economic activities to continue.
  • School nurses are deployed in emergency situations, ensuring student safety.

• Continuity of educational public services is secured. The main effects are as follows:

  • Learning gaps caused by strikes can be minimized.
  • Students and parents can plan school life stably.
  • Education offices can respond systematically based on legal grounds.
  • Social trust in schools can increase in the long term.

✅ Challenges for System Improvement

• Reasonable minimum staffing standards need to be established. The main directions are as follows:

  • Detailed standards considering school size, student numbers, and task characteristics are needed.
  • The government should provide guidelines that labor and management can refer to during negotiations.
  • Balance should be maintained so that excessive staffing requirements don't make strikes ineffective.
  • Problems arising during actual operation should be continuously monitored and improved.

• Worker treatment improvement should be pursued simultaneously. The main challenges are as follows:

  • Restricting the right to strike alone does not solve fundamental problems; poor working conditions for school non-regular workers must be improved.
  • Real measures for treatment improvement should be prepared, such as conversion to regular positions, wage increases, and employment stability.
  • Budget securing and staffing plans by education offices and local governments should support this.
  • A labor-management consultation culture that listens to workers' voices and accepts reasonable demands should be established.

• Alternative dispute resolution systems should be strengthened. The main measures are as follows:

  • Systems to mediate conflicts between labor and management before strikes occur should be activated.
  • The Labor Relations Commission's mediation function should be strengthened to encourage early agreements.
  • Establishing specialized mediation committees considering the special nature of education can be considered.
  • Various participation channels where workers can voice their opinions besides strikes should be created.

4️⃣ Related Terms

🔎 Essential Public Services

• Essential public services are public service operations essential to people's lives.
  • Essential public services are businesses that have a significant impact on people's lives, safety, and daily living, as stipulated in Article 71 of the Labor Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act. Strikes in these services can be restricted or subject to stop orders.
  • Current essential public services include: First, railway services, urban railway services, and air transport services. Second, water supply, electricity, gas, oil refining, and oil supply services. Third, hospital services. Fourth, blood supply services and the Bank of Korea. Fifth, telecommunications services.
  • When designated as an essential public service, essential maintenance services must be determined to maintain minimum staffing. Labor and management negotiate the scope and necessary personnel for essential maintenance services, and if no agreement is reached, the Labor Relations Commission decides. Violating this can result in legal penalties. If school services are included in essential public services, educational services would be treated as part of public safety.

🔎 Three Labor Rights

• The three labor rights are workers' basic rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
  • The three labor rights are rights guaranteed to workers under Article 33 of the Constitution: the right to organize, the right to collective bargaining, and the right to collective action. These are collective labor rights that ensure workers can improve working conditions on equal footing with employers.
  • The contents of these three rights are: First, the right to organize is the right of workers to form and join labor unions. Second, the right to collective bargaining is the right of labor unions to negotiate with employers about wages, working conditions, etc. Third, the right to collective action is the right of labor unions to take collective actions such as strikes and slowdowns.
  • However, in public service sectors, these rights can be partially restricted by law as they may directly affect public safety. For essential public services, strikes are possible but minimum staffing must be maintained, and public officials and teachers have their right to collective action (right to strike) restricted. The Constitutional Court has ruled such restrictions constitutional when they comply with the principle of proportionality for public interest.

🔎 Principle of Proportionality

• The principle of proportionality is a constitutional principle that sets limits on basic rights restrictions.
  • The principle of proportionality is a constitutional principle that must be followed when the state restricts citizens' basic rights, requiring four conditions: legitimacy of purpose, appropriateness of means, minimum harm, and balance of legal interests.
  • The four conditions include: First, legitimacy of purpose means basic rights restrictions must be for legitimate public interest. Second, appropriateness of means means the chosen method should be effective in achieving the goal. Third, minimum harm means choosing the method that least infringes on basic rights among various means to achieve the same goal. Fourth, balance of legal interests means the public benefit gained must be greater than the private benefit lost.
  • The School Strike Prevention Act is also evaluated according to this principle. The purpose of student protection is legitimate, and essential public service designation is an appropriate means. However, minimum harm and balance of legal interests can be controversial. We must consider whether there are less restrictive alternatives (e.g., securing substitute workers, improving treatment) than restricting the right to strike, and whether the public interest of student safety is clearly greater than the private interest of workers' right to strike.

🔎 Essential Maintenance Services

• Essential maintenance services are the minimum services that must be maintained even during strikes.
  • Essential maintenance services refer to services that must be performed in essential public services during industrial action periods to maintain normal service levels. This is stipulated in Article 42-2 of the Labor Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act.
  • The procedure for determining essential maintenance services is: First, labor and management determine the scope and necessary personnel for essential maintenance services through collective agreements. Second, if no agreement is reached, either party can request a decision from the Labor Relations Commission. Third, the Labor Relations Commission makes a decision after hearing expert opinions. Fourth, determined essential maintenance services must be observed, and violations can result in fines or liability for damages.
  • If schools are designated as essential public services, labor and management will negotiate or the Labor Relations Commission will decide which services among meal services, childcare, and health services will be essential maintenance services and how many people will be minimum staffing. For example, for a school with 500 students, it will be specifically determined how many minimum cafeteria workers and childcare teachers must work even during strikes. Since situations differ by school, individual negotiations are more important than uniform standards.

5️⃣ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: If schools are designated as essential public services, can teachers and school staff not strike at all?

A: It's not completely prohibited; strikes are possible if minimum staffing is maintained.

• Essential public service designation does not prohibit strikes themselves but requires minimum staffing for essential maintenance services. For example, even if 7 out of 10 cafeteria workers participate in a strike, at least 3 must work to provide meals to students. Labor unions can still exercise their rights to organize, collective bargaining, and collective action, but minimum services directly related to student safety must be maintained.
• However, teachers who are public officials and educational civil servants are already restricted in their right to collective action (right to strike) under current law. The School Strike Prevention Act mainly targets strikes by school non-regular workers (cafeteria workers, childcare workers, educational assistants, etc.). These workers can form unions and strike, but if the bill passes, essential maintenance service personnel will not be able to participate in strikes. Who specifically will work as minimum staffing will be determined through labor-management negotiations or Labor Relations Commission decisions.

Q: What disadvantages do workers face if designated as an essential public service?

A: Strike effectiveness may weaken and bargaining power may decrease, but working conditions themselves don't worsen.

• The biggest impact of essential public service designation is weakened strike bargaining power. If full strikes become impossible, it becomes harder to pressure employers, potentially placing workers in a disadvantaged position in negotiations for wage increases or improved working conditions. For example, if all school meals are stopped, education offices would quickly come to the negotiation table, but if minimum staffing is maintained, urgency decreases and negotiations could be delayed. This is why labor groups oppose it.
• However, essential public service designation does not mean wage cuts or layoffs. The content of labor contracts and working conditions themselves don't change; only strike methods are restricted. Labor unions can still present demands through collective bargaining and find compromise through mediation procedures. There's even a positive aspect that the government or education offices might be more active in improving worker treatment along with essential public service designation. The important thing is that alternative mechanisms to protect workers' rights should be established along with strike restrictions.

Q: When will the School Strike Prevention Act be applied if passed?

A: It's expected to be implemented after a grace period following passage and promulgation by the National Assembly.

• Generally, laws are implemented after a certain grace period (usually 6 months to 1 year) after promulgation. This gives stakeholders time to adapt to and prepare for the new law. If the School Strike Prevention Act passes, it will likely have a grace period rather than immediate implementation. During this period, education offices will prepare essential maintenance service guidelines, labor and management will negotiate minimum staffing, and related procedures will be organized.
• Currently, the bill is under review in the National Assembly's Education Committee, and it's difficult to predict when it will pass due to large differences between ruling and opposition parties. The ruling party demands quick passage, but the opposition and labor groups argue for careful discussion. Even if the bill passes the Education Committee, it still needs review by the Legislation and Judiciary Committee and plenary session approval, so actual passage may take time. The implementation date will be specified in the law, so the supplementary provisions should be checked when the bill passes. Schools and labor unions should use this grace period to develop reasonable operating plans.

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