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 Home > Open Board > News Release > 62,000 foreign workers will come to Korea in 2013 (an increase of 5,000 laborers over 2012)

    Despite Passage of the 'Act on the Protection, etc. of Fixed-term and Part-time Employees', getting Hired as a Regular Worker is s
    Admin     2012/09/26 10:52 am

Only 6% of those who have worked for '2 or more years' have been hired as regular, full-time workers

6 out of 10 irregular workers are indefinite-term contract employees

After implementation of the Act on the Protection, etc. of Fixed-term and Part-time Employees, which limits the use of contract workers for more than 2 years, about half of fixed-term workers have retained their positions while only 6% of contract workers have been hired as regular workers. Most fixed-term contract workers have become indefinite-term contract workers who are in effect "quasi-regular employees" whose wages and working conditions are inferior to those of regular employees.

For the first time, the MOEL announced results of the 'Employee Panel Survey by Employment Type' conducted from April 2010 to July 2011 in order to evaluate the effect of the Act on the Protection, etc. of Fixed-term and Part-time Employees which took effect in 2007.

According to survey results, out of 1.145 mln workers subject to The Act as of April 2010, just 665,000 (58.1%) were still working for the same employer in July 2011, while 480,000 (41.9%) had changed jobs.

Out of 571,000 workers employed for more than 2 years at the same workplaces who are directly affected by The Act, only 35,000 became regular workers, 357,000 (63%) fixed-term workers became indefinite-term contract workers, while 128,000 (22.4%) changed jobs.

The Act on the Protection, etc. of Fixed-term and Part-time Employees classifies workers with more than 2 years' employment at the same company as indefinite-term contract workers. Before the implementation of The Act, indefinite-term contract workers were practically treated as full-time workers. With the implementation of The Act, however, indefinite-term contracts have emerged as an increasingly-popular 3rd employment type whose working conditions differ from those of regular workers. This gives rise to concerns that employment discrimination will become entrenched in the labor market. Despite big wage differences between regular and indefinite-term contract workers, the latter are not categorized as irregular workers, making them ineligible to request discrimination relief from the Labor Relations Commission.

The Act has resulted in a 'Balloon Effect' (if you squeeze a balloon in one place, it will swell in another place) characterized by indirect employment and other practices. Among fixed-term workers who changed jobs, about 120,000 (39%) have been hired as irregular workers including dispatched workers.

Although one of the main provisions of the Act on the Protection, etc. of Fixed-term and Part-time Employees is the remedy of employment discrimination, most people are not aware of this provision despite the passage of The Act 5 years ago. If fixed-term workers experience discrimination in the workplace, they can request discrimination relief from the Labor Relations Commission, but about 60% of irregular workers said they 'did not know' about this system. Nam-sin Lee, director of the Korean Contingent Workers' Center, said, "we need to strengthen the law so that companies cannot hire irregular workers barring extraordinary circumstances and we must also take urgent measures to protect indirectly-hired workers and employees working under indefinite-term contracts."
Source: Korea International Labor Foundation (Sept. 21, 2012) (http://www.koilaf.org/KFeng/engLabornews/bbs_read_dis.php?board_no=7769)
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