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Most Part-Time Workers Suffer Abuse at Work

Young people who are making ends meet doing part-time jobs commonly suffer abuse at work, a straw poll suggests.

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Job portal website Albamon polled 612 part-time workers and found that seven out of 10 suffered abuse at work. Part-time workers are people who are employed for less than one-year contracts, including temps.

The most common abuse was an excessive workload. The law says workers must be given 30 minutes of rest for every four hours of work, but most part-time workers had to work straight through their shift without any rest, and there were numerous cases where they had to work extra hours for no additional pay.

Other abuses are verbal insults and delayed pay.

When the Chosun Ilbo recently polled around 100 temporary workers, many said they were threatened with losing three months' pay if they quit before their six-month contract expired, and some had 30 minutes worth of wages docked for each minute they were late for work.

The problem shows no signs of decreasing.

In the same survey last year by Albamon, 69.5 percent of respondents claimed to have suffered abuse at work.

An Albamon spokesman said almost half or 45.6 percent of the respondents said they had no choice but to put up with the abuse. Some 22.9 percent called for tougher punitive measures for abusive bosses, and 21.1 percent wanted tighter supervision.

Lim Moo-song at the Labor Ministry said, "If young people suffer injustice early in their professional lives, the experiences could have a negative impact on the overall labor market and society. The government will strengthen supervision and take steps to reduce the abuses suffered by temporary workers".

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