15 Pct of Jobs Cut in Merger of Medical Insurances
About 2,000 out of the total 12,586 workers will lose jobs, fueling the on-going labor strikes, as three medical insurance schemes prepare to merge on July 1.
Source : Korea Times
About 2,000 out of the total 12,586 workers will lose jobs, fueling the on-going labor strikes, as three medical insurance schemes prepare to merge on July 1.
Cha Heung-bong, minister of health and welfare, yesterday announced a merger plan that will trim 327 branches to 235 in six regional headquarters nationwide.
The medical insurance service system which are currently divided into three systems _ salaried workers, the self-employed, and civil servants, including teachers _ which will be merged into a single body named National Health Insurance Corp.
The workers at the insurance systems will be trimmed by 1,953 persons, or 15.5 percent, to 10,633 from 12,586, Cha told reporters.
But the minister said, ``The government has no immediate plan to cut jobs under any restructuring package following the merger.''
As a concession to protesting insurance workers, he promised that the the merged system will set up two different departments. One for the salaried workers and one for the self-employed.
Cha also pledged to allow the merged system to keep its financial independence from each other until the end of 2001.
However, about 2,800 workers of the insurance service for salaried workers are still refusing to accept the integration plan, calling for operational and financial independence for salaried workers and the self-employed even after the merger.
The union workers affiliated with the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) have been staging strike in protest against the envisaged merger program.
They claimed that the salaried workers will have to shoulder more burden then the self-employed workers.
They pointed out that many of the self-employed reported smaller amounts of incomes to the authorities than what they actually earned in a desperate move to pay less for medical insurance.
The protesting insurance workers are refusing to transfer collected insurance premiums to the National Federation of Medical Insurance (NFMI), which is in charge of allotting insurance coverage to hospitals and pharmacies.
Following the strike by insurance workers, hospitals and pharmacies are facing difficulties receiving insurance coverage from the NFMI.
Minister Cha threatened to take stern legal actions against the striking workers if they continue to refuse to transfer the insurance premiums to the NFMI.
Meanwhile, workers of the insurance scheme for the self-employed demanded the government to push ardently for a full-fledged integration in order to strengthen social cohesion and enhance equality among different groups of subscribers.
The workers are members of the umbrella labor group Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).
2000 / -0 / 4-
|
