SOUTH KOREA: Part-time lecturers fight discrimination

Overnight rainfall cooled Seoul. Throngs of workers were rushing to their offices on the slippery road. But amid them was a white-haired couple taking down a green tent to dry it in the morning sunshine, alongside other rain-soaked supplies. They were not homeless people but ‘professors’ who have taught Chinese history and Korean labour history at universities until recently, reports The Korea Times. Since last September they have spent hundreds of nights in a worn-out tent near the National Assembly in Yeouido, urging the government to give the same status as full-time professors to part-time lecturers and to improve other working conditions including job security and salary.

“In Korean universities, part-time lecturers are no more than day laborers,” Kim Dong-ay, 61, a former full-time lecturer at a Seoul university and an executive of a temporary educators' union, told The Korea Times. “More than 70,000 part-time lecturers nationwide are being exploited without official labour contracts. Most of them earn less then 10 million won (US$10,000) a year.” They teach 40% of classes at universities. Since their status was downgraded 34 years ago under the Park Chung-hee regime, they have been unable to enjoy basic benefits such as pensions and medical insurance.'”
Full report on the Korea Times site