"There has been no improvement for the past 42 years. I come to work at 8 a.m. and work until 10 p.m., if work demands are high. I have never received any overtime allowance. I am still sitting on the sewing machine for the whole day, except lunch break. My body aches all over.", said a garment worker in her age of late 50s who started the work as a teenage sewer.

In the 1970s, young garment workers at the "Peace Market" in Seoul worked at the sweatshops without adequate light and ventilation for 14 hours a day. These teenage girls now became the middle-aged women, but many of them still work in the same vulnerable working conditions as 40 years before.

According to the Seoul Labor Center, 8 out of 10 garment workers as of 2015 were uncovered by the employment insurance and industrial accident compensation insurance, and 7 out of 10 were not covered by the national pension scheme.

The coalition group is joined by the Chun Tae-il Foundation, Korean Chemical and Textile Workers' Union, Neighborhood Labor Rights Watch, Work and Health, Eastern Seoul Contingent Workers' Center, Kuro Workers' Welfare Center and Seoul Labor Center.

reported by Lee Eun-young
translated by Kim Sung-jin