The Korean Sports Association's union culture department asked us to resolve employment insecurity caused by the transfer of the retirement support project
Jun 13, 2025
|
Career counseling, mentoring, and education for retired athletes, which had been in charge of the Korea Sports Association until last year, were transferred to the National Sports Promotion Agency (hereinafter referred to as the Industrial Complex) last year based on the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's Improvement of the Budget Execution Structure of the Sports Industry and the Sports Personality Welfare Act. As the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism designated the Sports Personality Welfare Act under the Sports Personality Welfare Actthe Sports Personality Welfare Agency', the projects to support retired athletes that the Korean Sports Association had promoted and operated on its own were incorporated into the industrial complex. The problem is that no alternative has been prepared for the succession and maintenance of employment of vocational counselors (3 persons, indefinite contract workers of the Korea Sports Council), who have been carrying out this project for years. Employment insecurity has arisen amid the reality that employees of the Korea Sports Association cannot carry out the industrial complex project. In this regard, the union of the Korea Sports Association urged the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to resolve the issue on the 13th. Instead of solving their labor costs with stopgap measures, they demanded that the main body of sustainable solutions, retirement player education, and support projects be relocated to the Korea Sports Council with expertise.
In a statement, the association's labor union said, "The Ministry of Culture has cut the association's budget by 33% (KRW 138.883 billion out of KRW 408.76 billion last year) this year without sufficient consultation or collecting opinions, making it difficult to operate the organization."The lukewarm response to the employment issue of the retirement player support project transferred to the National Sports Promotion Agency has caused serious mental anxiety and pain to the employees concerned" he insisted.
As the agency's budget is directly related to the size of the workforce and organization, our union has continuously raised internal and external issues, fearing employment damage to employees since the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced the budget cut (August 2024). In particular, during a meeting with Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Yoo In-chon and other key officials in February of this year (February 25, 2025) he asked directly about the budget cut and was promised through the minister that `we will not cause problems with employee employment and working conditions.' Subsequently, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's lukewarm response to the employment issue of the project 'retired (athlete's career) transferred to another institution (industrial complex) caused serious mental anxiety and pain to the employees of the parties. As of 2024, the budget for the project was 1.548 billion won, and the contents of the project were career counseling, mentoring, and education for retired athletes, including the wages of three professional counselors (indefinite contract workers). The retirement player (athlete's career) support project is a key project that the Korea Sports Council has operated to be a turning point in its career based on its expertise and experience accumulated over the years, and its performance is used as a measure of our institution's management performance evaluation, criticizing the problems of transferring work and the lack of employment succession measures in the process. It is argued that it is an inevitable measure in accordance with the designation of an agency dedicated to the welfare of athletes under the Sports Personality Welfare Act, but the Korean Sports Council can also be designated as a dedicated agency, and in accordance with the National Sports Promotion Act, it includes the function of a project to support retired national athletes for the purpose of establishment.
The association's union then urged the association to `promise and implement the employment maintenance without lowering the working conditions of the employees involved or reducing the number of employees and budget of the institution, and restore the 'Retired Player (Project to Support Career)' to the Korea Sports Association from next year, and come up with fundamental measures to prevent further job insecurity among employees of the association due to budget cuts in 2025.'
Reporter Jeon Young-ji sky4us@sportschosun.com
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
