Varieties of Precarity: Melting Labour and the Failure to Protect Workers in the Korean Welfare State

Despite recent achievements in the South Korean economy and development within welfare institutions, new forms of precarious work continue to prevail. This book introduces the concept of ‘melting labour’, which refers the blurring of boundaries between traditional forms of work and workplace and the dissolution of standard employment relationships. Presenting a theoretical framework at the intersection of ‘melting labour’ and institutional protection of workers, it addresses how and why the Korean welfare state has failed to protect precarious workers. Based on rich, in-depth interviews with over 80 precarious workers in Korea, from subcontracted manufacturing workers to platform workers, it provides a real depiction of how workers lose control over their lives and experience precariousness in labour markets. Front Cover Series page Varieties of Precarity: Melting Labour and the Failure to Protect Workers in the Korean Welfare State Copyright information Table of Contents Series editors’ preface List of figures and tables Acknowledgements 1 Introduction: Melting labour and institutional inconsistency The precariat in South Korea Explaining the Korean welfare state and labour market The Korean welfare state and functional equivalence New risk and non-regular workers Dualised labour market thesis Changes in work by stages of capitalism Fissured workplace Platform capitalism Precarious workers and melting labour Precarious workers Melting labour Theoretical framework The structure of the book and research methods 2 Social protection policies and the South Korean labour market in comparative perspective Flexibility measures and precarious workers in Korea Expansion of various forms of work Legal and statistical classification of varieties of work forms in Korea Platform workers The institutional inconsistency of social protection in Korea The national pension Employment insurance Industrial accident compensation insurance Conclusion 3 When insiders are kicked out: layoffs of regular workers in manufacturing The dual labour market in Korea SsangYong Motor’s 2009 mass layoffs and thereafter Employment protection legislation and mass layoffs Regular employees in manufacturing entering the outside labour market Rethinking social protection and bridging the gap 4 Same boat, different destiny: subcontracted workers in the Korean shipbuilding industry Fissured workplaces and the expansion of subcontracting The expansion of subcontracted working in the Korean shipbuilding industry A qualitative analysis on the precarity of subcontracted workers The pyramidal employment structure and precarious working conditions Subcontracted workers’ experiences of social protection and training Inconsistencies in social protection and subcontracted workers’ precarity 5 Young and old outsourced female workers in call centres and cleaning services The gender gap in the Korean female labour market Female employment policy in Korea Outsourced female workers in call centres and cleaning services A qualitative analysis on the precarity of female cleaning workers Outsourcing and cost-lowering strategies Cleaning workers’ experience of social protection A qualitative analysis on the precarity of female call centre workers Outsourcing structure and the competition mechanism Call centre workers’ experiences of social protection The inconsistency of social protection for outsourced female workers 6 Are freelancers really free? The Korean freelance labour market and the precarity of young freelancers The expansion of freelancing Freelancers in Korea Freelancers’ precarity A qualitative analysis of the precarity of young Korean freelancers Irregularity in income, plural employers and fierce competition Irregular working hours and an ambiguous boundary between work and life The institutional inconsistency of social protection Are freelancers really free? 7 The digital precariat: various Korean platform workers and the new work logic Insecurity of platform work Types of platform labour in Korea The empirical landscape of the Korean platform labour market A qualitative analysis of platform workers in Korea The institutional inconsistency of social protection The precarity of platform workers 8 Conclusion: Towards universal institutional protection for precarious workers in the era of melting labour Melting labour and the variety of precarious workers Welfare state ‘drift’ Next avenue of research Notes Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 References Index