Presidential front runner Moon Jae-in reportedly pledged to abolish merit-based pay in the public sector immediately if he takes power.

In a ceremony to launch the Confederation of Korean Government Employees’ Unions Saturday, rivals of the former leader of the Democratic Party of Korea made similar pledges.

Merit pay is being enforced in the public sector to remove its inefficiency. It has been adopted by 119 public enterprises and quasi-governmental agencies.

Repealing the reward program the unions have opposed will push erstwhile public-sector reforms back to square one.

It is a populist pledge aimed at securing about 1 million civil servants’ votes and runs counter to reforms Moon has vowed to pursue to clear the accumulated evils in officialdom. All members of the public want the government to be efficient and productive.

Complacency due to job security and seniority-based pay, a lack of service and a penchant to boss around civilians are among deep-rooted vices in the public service. Merit pay is one of the best ways to wake up a sluggish and change-resistant bureaucracy.

Yet neither public-sector unions nor aspiring presidents have agonized over how to improve the civil service. Rather they have united to serve their own goals. Under the pledge, unions will get what they want -- a return to egalitarian pay without performance evaluations -- while candidates will receive their support in return. The cozy relationship between the president and government employees’ unions does a disservice to the nation.

Moon accepted most of the confederation’s demands, including prior consultations with unions before he reorganizes the government, a guarantee of government employees’ party affiliation and political endorsement and his support for its plan to enlist more agencies as its members.

If government employees are permitted to take political action on their issues, they will place their own interests first. Then, real reform of the public sector will be off the table.

The same is true of his earlier pledge to make the government bigger. He announced in January he would increase government manpower by 810,000 as part of his plans to create jobs.

Suppose it costs the government 50 million won ($44,800) to keep up a new employee for a year, about 40 trillion won is needed each year to put 810,000 more public servants on the payroll. Considering about 1 million people are employed by the government, his job-creation scheme will place a huge burden on taxpayers.

Moon recently announced his plans to fight the snowballing household debt, including the relief of 22.6 trillion won in bad debt owed by about 2.03 million people.

The pledge is also populist and unfair to those who have been repaying their debts faithfully. Though Moon may receive support from the bad debtors, discontent among the public including bona fide debtors will have adverse effects on social unity.

South Chungcheong Province Gov. and Democratic Party presidential hopeful An Hee-jung promised to enforce a sabbatical leave of one year for all laborers after 10 years of employment. Rest and recharge are a necessary thing for laborers, but it is questionable if An knows the stark reality that many laborers cannot help but skip their leave due to the difficult business conditions of their companies. The pledge looks like pie in the sky to most laborers.

Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung promised to pay 1 million won in basic income to each of 28 million people in certain age groups each year.

Candidates seem to be competing in a populism race. They should stop misleading voters with pledges which will only sap the state coffers or pull back reforms.

Moon and his rival candidates should know that their populist pledges are one of the long-standing vices they have vowed to root out.