The issue of workers’ rights has been continuously debated upon over the decades. The most recent disputes have arisen in France regarding the government’s undemocratic decision to raise the pension age. With the dynamic status quo of the world economy, workers now need to identify whether there is injustice in the way they are treated at work, be it in terms of pay, environment, or security, and act to reverse such injustice. Such protests are not a novel concept to South Korea, either; South Korean workers have transitioned from taking a passive stance on unfair rights to initiating movements on the streets to regain justice for themselves since the country first gained independence. In this month’s Feature, we delve into the state of affairs in France, the workers’ rights highlighted within the KAIST community and the part-time employment of international students on campus to evaluate how workers’ rights have been upheld or otherwise in various contexts.

Overall, employed student working conditions seem to be upheld well, with the only issues being related to the nature of the positions themselves. However, with the situation in KAIST and France brought to focus within this Feature, along with ongoing strikes in other parts of the world such as the UK, it seems clear that workers’ rights and pay in a society where cost of living continues to increase needs to be re-examined.