“As the crew room also serves as a nursing room, I leave the door open without even locking it for fear of passengers coming.”
Mi-Jeong Yoo, a flight attendant from KORAIL Tourism Development, a subsidiary of KORAIL's consignment operation, told Yonhap News about the reality that the breastfeeding room on the train is actually used as a crew room.
According to Yonhap News coverage on the 6th, the crew members of KORAIL Tourism Development, a subcontractor, have been using the nursing room and storage space for goods for a long time because there was no crew room.
Usually, a train team leader from KORAIL, the main contractor, and 1 to 2 crew members from KORAIL subsidiaries board a high-speed train together. In the case of the train team leader, there is a separate train team leader's office.
The crew room is a space where crew members perform safety tasks such as sharing the situation via radio with the train team leader or engineer and guiding passenger evacuation in the event of an emergency.
Flight attendant Yoo complained, “From the passengers’ perspective, they cannot properly use the nursing room, and the flight attendants are also unable to use the crew room.”
It is said that passengers who visited the nursing room wait outside while the flight attendant uses the space, or that the flight attendant goes out into the aisle in the middle of working for the passenger, which is repeated every time.
In particular, embarrassing situations occur frequently, such as when male flight attendants receive complaints from passengers while using the nursing room.
Recently, KORAIL has prepared a crew room in front of the power room at the end of the train in response to continued requests from crew members.
However, this is said to be installed only on some trains.
In addition, the crew members say that due to the nature of the job, which requires going around the entire cabin, it is virtually impossible to use the crew room at the end of the train.
Even in rest environments such as lodging, the difference between the main contractor and the subsidiary is clear.
When a train that arrives late at night ends its operation, the crew rests in a rented apartment near the station before boarding the train the next morning.
Main contractor (Korail) employees, such as train team leaders, use independent lodgings inside the station or near the tracks, but employees of the subsidiary (Korail Tourism Development) share one apartment with several people, dividing it with a thin curtain.
It is pointed out that although they perform virtually the same work as KORAIL employees, the main contractor, they are not provided with basic rest infrastructure, leading to a 'safety gap'.
Flight attendant Yoo said, "Up to nine people live together in a three-room rental apartment. We share the space with thin curtains, and everyone goes to work at different times, so we can't rest comfortably even for about three hours of sleep."
Because there is not enough space to rest, a waiting room is used for passengers to come and go.
There is a dedicated lounge for main office employees within the station, but subsidiary employees are prohibited from entering.
In this situation, the number of train operations has increased due to the recent integration of KTX and SRT.
After integration, the number of KTX trips per day increased by 23 times on weekdays (379 → 402 times) and by 26 times on weekends (431 → 457 times).
Daily seat supply also increased to 15,000 seats on weekdays and 17,000 seats on weekends.
Experts pointed out that for the sake of passenger safety, a sufficient resting environment must be guaranteed without distinction between primary and subcontractors.
Park Yong-cheol, director of the Korea Labor and Society Research Institute, said, “Train attendants are a high-tension job due to the nature of their work, so they must have a minimum level of rest facilities,” and added, “The safety of passengers can only be ensured when sufficient rest for the cabin crew is guaranteed.”
At the same time, he emphasized, “Guaranteeing complete rest is the most basic content of the Labor Standards Act,” and added, “Equal working environments and facilities must be guaranteed to main contractors, subcontractors, regular workers, and non-regular workers performing the same work.”
