CJ Group plans to hire 3,008 dispatched workers who are currently employed by agencies and improve working conditions for part-time workers. On 26 July, the group announced its plans to directly employ workers in broadcasting production and cafeteria staff. The group has begun calling part-time workers ‘professional service workers’ and has vowed to improve medical support for its entire work force.
The group released its plans to expand hires and reduce non-regular workers as ways to improve their treatment following the new administration’s job initiative. The plan is to directly employ this workforce as soon as their current contracts with dispatch agencies terminate this year.
CJ also pledged to come up with a plan to improve the employment of in-house subcontract workers at manufacturing facilities in the second half of this year. The decision to call part-time workers ‘professional service workers’ and the group’s promises to improve medical benefits for all are designed to decrease the welfare gap.
In 2013, CJ Group introduced ‘decent part-time jobs’ and began providing scholarships and gifts for national holidays to dispatched workers and assisting them with interest payments on school loans.
The group further promised to cover 100 percent of medical costs that exceed KRW 100,000 (USD 89) for professional service workers in CGV, Olive Young, Food Ville, and Fresh Way. This was formerly offered to regular workers only.
A spokesperson from CJ Group stated, “The group intends to move towards creating a fair workplace through realizable measures, gradually shifting non-regular positions to regular employment, and expanding benefits to include non-regular workers to decrease the welfare gap.”