4.2 The fight for safe rates for transportation workers in South Korea KPTU-TruckSol has built workers’ power and pushed for reg­ulations that have improved the livelihoods of South Korean road transport workers. By Nithin Coca 1 In the past decade, South Korea has emerged as one of East Asia’s most advanced digital economies, with e-commerce, ride-hailing, and other services all growing. But for many truckers and logistics transportation workers, without which these services wouldn’t be possible, the benefits have been few and far between. Deregulation, since the early 1990s, has eased the barrier of entry for smaller com­panies and owner-operators, while the power of large companies to dictate rates has grown, increasing driver precarity. “The vast majority of truck drivers in Korea, over 90 per cent, are de­pendently self-employed workers or‘owner drivers’, and these work­ers face several challenges,” says Wol-san Liem, director of interna­tional affairs at the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union(KPTU).“They are not recognised as employees or even work­ers under Korean labour law, meaning that their rights to basic mini­mum standards, like a minimum wage, working time limits, or free­dom of association, are not legally guaranteed.” 1 Nithin Coca is a freelance journalist who focuses on social and econo­mic issues in developing countries, and has specific expertise in south-east Asia. 52 Riders on the Storm