Poorly paid factory workers in rural North Korea are bribing managers to take leave of their official work units in order to pursue lucrative jobs in local marketplaces.
The workers are unable to make ends meet on their meager monthly salaries, so they need to partake in market activities in order to earn enough money to feed their families. The workers are mainly from factories hit by power shortages or ones that lack raw materials.
In order to cope with these problems, workers have been mobilized to participate in the August 3rd Production Campaign, a policy introduced on August 3, 1984 by late leader Kim Jong Il, whereby factory workers engage in private commerce outside their workplace in order to support the factories with the money they have earned doing business at local markets.
The employee families give around 80,000 won per month to the factory as a form of bribe so that they can embark on private commerce. With the money, the factory maintains its facilities and covers the manager's living expenses.
This relationship between worker and manager is a direct result of the central government's order that factories take on an independent profit system, without providing any guidance or investigating how sustainable the policy would be.
SOURCE: Radio Free Asia
