Ahead of a planned reduction in U.S. troops in South Korea, the U.S. military authorities have begun laying off South Korean employees in U.S. military installations.

Mun Yeong-bae, head of the Paju branch of the Korean Employees Union (KEU) of the U.S. Forces in Korea (USFK), said Thursday that eight members of his branch were laid off recently.

About one hundred South Koreans are employed in Paju, a border city where U.S. forces are stationed to patrol the Joint Security Area in the border village of Panmunjom. Mun said many more locals will be asked to leave around November when the U.S. military transfers the border village patrol duty to South Korea and American soldiers withdraw from the area.

At another border town, Dongducheon, north of Seoul, 33 union members received layoff notices last week.

The union wants the South Korean government to arrange for reemployment of its members elsewhere, claiming they are "semi-public officials," with about 70 percent of their wages paid by the Korean government.

The union expects as many as 40 percent of its members will lose their jobs following the U.S. plan to withdraw one-third of its troops stationed in South Korea.

Approximately 18,000 Koreans work for the 37,000-strong U.S. military across the nation.