During the year, the minimum wage increased from 7,350 won ($6.56) to 8,350 won ($7.45). In February an amendment to the Labor Standards Law reduced working hours from 68 to 52 hours per week.
The law allowed a flexible system under which employees may work more than eight hours during certain days or more than 40 hours per week during certain weeks, so long as average weekly work hours for any given two-week period do not exceed 40. For employers who adopt a flexible system, hours exceeding 40 constitute overtime. Foreign companies operating in export processing zones are exempt from labor regulations that mandate one day of rest a week. The law limits overtime of ordinary workers to 12 hours a week to protect workers’ health.
The government sets occupational health and safety standards and is responsible for monitoring industry adherence. Under the law, workers have the right to remove themselves from situations of danger without jeopardizing their employment. These standards apply to all sectors, including agriculture, fisheries, and mining.
The government enforced laws on wages and acceptable conditions of work for all sectors. It also conducted educational programs to prevent accidents in the workplace. The MOEL reported that it conducted more than 3,000 workplace inspections each year, particularly in the agriculture, livestock, fisheries, and construction sectors, which generally had poor working conditions. The International Labor Organization observed, however, that the number of labor inspectors was insufficient and that unannounced inspections were rare. Worker organizations also expressed concerns about the insufficient number of labor inspections to identify potential violations of labor laws. Penalties for violations of occupational safety and health standards and overtime regulations included imprisonment and fines.
A set of regulations outlines legal protections for migrant (those under the EPS) and foreign workers. Permit holders may work only in certain industries and had limited job mobility, but most enjoyed the same protections under labor law as citizens. Contract workers, irregular workers, and part-time workers accounted for a substantial portion of the workforce, particularly in the electronics, automotive, and service sectors.
Workers under the EPS faced multiple restrictions on employment mobility. Such workers lose their legal status if they lose their job and do not find a new employer within three months. If a migrant worker is not able to get a new job within three months, authorities can cancel his or her work permit, forcing the worker to return home or remain in the country illegally. This situation was particularly difficult for seasonal workers, such as those involved in agriculture or construction. Migrant workers did not have access to lists of companies that were hiring when they wanted to change jobs, which made it more difficult for these workers to change jobs freely. Migrant laborers were required to return to their country of origin after a maximum of four years and 10 months in the country but could apply to reenter after three months.
To prevent violations and improve working conditions for migrant and foreign workers, the government provided pre-employment training to newly arrived foreign workers, workplace adaptation training to those who changed workplaces, and training to employers who hired foreign workers. The government funded 42 Foreign Workers Support Centers nationwide, a call center that provided foreign workers with counseling services in 15 languages, Korean language and cultural programs, shelter, and free health care services. Four ministries (Interior and Safety, Justice, Gender Equality and Family, and Employment and Labor) and several municipalities jointly built 10 Multicultural Family and Migrant Plus Centers to provide foreign workers, international marriage immigrants, and other multicultural families with a one-stop service center providing immigration, welfare, and education services.
The law requires severance payments to migrant workers who have worked in the country for at least one year. Many workers, however, reported difficulty in receiving severance pay prior to their departure and stated they did not receive payments even after returning to their country of origin due to banking regulations and delinquent employers. NGOs reported many departing migrants never received these payments.
NGOs reported that while the minimum wage increased, employers tried to curb rising minimum wages for migrant workers by reducing work hours, employing unregistered migrant workers, and charging migrant workers for their accommodations and board.
Some NGOs reported migrant workers were particularly vulnerable to exploitation because the law excludes regulations on working hours, holidays, and benefits for the agricultural, livestock, and fisheries industries, which had large numbers of migrant workers. Other NGOs reported foreign laborers sometimes faced physical abuse and exploitation by employers in the form of longer working hours and lower wages than their local counterparts. NGOs reported little change in conditions for migrant workers and expressed concern about the lack of improvement.
NGOs reported that although employers are prohibited from providing makeshift accommodations, such as vinyl greenhouses for migrant workers, some circumvented this prohibition and provided migrant workers with substandard accommodations made of plastic panels.
According to the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency and the MOEL, there were 89,848 industrial work-related accidents and 1,957 fatalities as of 2017, an increase of 10.1 percent over 2016. For example, four workers at Pohang Iron and Steel Co. died after being exposed to nitrogen gas in January 2017. In response Posco, owner of the mill, doubled its safety budget and invested 1.1 trillion won ($981 million) to improve the company’s safety measures over the course of three years. The Pohang District Office of the Ministry of Employment and Labor found that Posco did not measure the density of oxygen, verify the number of workers at the factory, or furnish emergency rescue equipment. The ministry’s district office asked prosecutors to indict those involved, including the manager of Pohang Iron & Steel Co. In June the MOEL’s regional office in Pohang sent the case to the Prosecutor’s Office. Pohang Iron & Steel Co. was fined 10 million won ($8,920).