Country Report of Korea

Republic of Korea
Speaker: In Ok Jeon, the executive director of Korea Blind Women Union

There are largely the massage•acupuncture industry, the augur industry, the teacher and the profession, the office worker of settlement house and blind organization and the various religious persons, etc as the occupations of Korean blinds and among them , the massage acupuncture industry is the occupation which most blinds have worked in for the long period (1 century).

According to the Medial Act, only the blinds can obtain the qualification for the massage and the acupuncture industry and only the person with the qualification can perform the concerned works, which becomes the basis of the occupational rehabilitations of the blinds, the economic independence and the participation in the society.

But, the persons in sports massage industry, etc instituted the constitutional petition with the reasons such as 'the civil liberties of occupational selection' and 'the bleach of the principle of law reservation and excess prohibition' in the rules on massagers in the Medical Act and on May. 25, 2006, the Constitutional Court judged it as the violation of constitution, which generated the result that it occurred the anger and the resistance of the blinds.

Upon the judgement of the bleach of the Constitution like the above under the circumstance that the control and the punishment have not been properly achieved, in the meanwhile, even though the blinds continuously demanded the efforts and the roles of government to root out the flooded illegal massage shops without the qualification, they started to stir up and fight around Seoul Mapo Great Bridge while demanding the security of survival right and the preparation of occupational countermeasure and severely progressed the high-stakes sit-down strike for around 3 months and the legislation activities by the blind Assemblyman(Jung Hwa-Won). At last, 'the principle of law reservation' which was the reason for the judgement of the Constitutional bleach was satisfied on Aug. 29, 2006 through the revision of the Medical Act and the previous massager system could be kept.

However, the massagers of non-blind without the qualification presented the Constitutional Petition again while saying 'the occupational equality and the liberty of occupational selection' had been infringed and the judgement is forecasted to be sentenced around on Jun. 26, 2008. In this regard, the society of the blinds is practically surrounded with the tension and the uneasiness and progressing the activities for draw the constitutional judgement.

The society of the blinds like the KOREA BLIND UNION and the Korea Masseur Association, etc has tried with might and main to firmly establish the massager system as the occupational kinds for reserved employment through the supplementary legislation and to realize the application of massage to the health insurance, the legislation of acupuncture operation and the employment of massager in the public sectors, etc.

Korean blind massager system has been estimated as the excellent occupation in the point that it makes it possible to independently execute the duty without the help of the assistant among many occupations developed and introduced so far and gives the income required for the maintenance of livelihood and that there is many-sided efforts and trials such as the introduction of health keeper by the various regions-private companies utilizing the massage, the healthy massage by the medical institute and the massage center which the citizen can easily and cheaply use, etc.

In case that the qualification as the massager in Korea is allowed to the person without the handicapper, the value as the occupation for the blinds and the rate of employment cannot help become extremely low and at last most blinds are worried to be fallen down from taxpayers to beneficiaries of public assistance like the pension, etc.

Accordingly, the massager system will be protected and grown as the specialized occupation for the blinds and additionally the development of various occupations such as a public official, a shorthandwriter, a tele marketer and a internet marketer, etc and the support should be strengthened and there are the efforts for that purposes.