Employment Permit system benefits migrants

Lee Chae-pil Employment and Labor Minister By Yi Whan-woo Employment and Labor Minister Lee Chae-pil said the nation has successfully implemented the Employment Permit System (EPS) to supply foreign labor to small and medium firms. In a recent interview with The Korea Times, he said the system, partially adopted in August 2004, has enabled migrant workers to enjoy fair and equal treatment in workplaces here. “You can think of the time when our men and women went to Germany as miners and nurses (in the 1960s and 70s) and also when our construction workers toiled in Middle East (during the 1980s),” he said. “And I would say that we’re paying back to the international community by helping the economic development of other countries through this policy,” he added. Under the EPS, migrant workers in Korea are usually from Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Burma, Cambodia and East Timor, but also from China, Mongolia and Pakistan. The labor ministry focuses on transparent practices to supplement the shortcomings of the Industrial Training System (ITS). The ITS allowed small- and medium-sized firms to hire low-skilled immigrants as apprentices between 1993 and 2007 as a rising number of Koreans refused dirty, difficult, and dangerous employment, known locally as 3D jobs. The ITS however, caused several problems, such as brokers ripping off a large sum of money from workers, and employers exploiting the status of apprentices by paying low salaries or refusing to pay salaries. The EPS fully replaced the ITS in 2007; and foreign laborers benefited from the ministry’s efforts to provide favorable working circumstances in Korea, according to Lee. “Under the ITS, foreign workers usually paid a $3,509 fee to a broker in 2001, when they only need to pay $900 with the ministry keeping an eye on the matter.” The minister pointed out that the most notable characteristic of the policy is that the minimum rule on local workers is equally applied to the 485,000 foreigners under the EPS at the 8,400 firms where they work across the country. “And such an anti-discrimination policy has helped to protect improve the labor rights of immigrant workers,” he said. Global organizations recognized the ministry’s effort, and the International Labor Organization (ILO) in 2010 referred to the EPS as a scheme that “pioneers a system of migration management in Asia,” giving the same entitlements to foreign labor as Korean workers. The United Nations in June 2011 also awarded the Public Service Awards to the Human Resources Development Service of Korea for successfully implementing the EPS. “We have seen a positive change from those foreign workers in terms of the impression of Korea, with 61 percent of them saying their impression on the country got better while only 11.3 percent said the opposite. And also, the longer they stayed, the better impression they had,” Lee noted. However, he added that the EPS still needs to undergo improvement, especially regarding tracking illegal workers. The minister admitted that a crackdown on illegal immigrant laborers is not easy, posing a threat to the policy that was introduced with a rising number of locals avoiding low-skilled jobs. “Be reminded that the EPS puts priority on Korean workers, and employers should hire foreigners only when they can’t find local applicants,” he said.

Source: Korea Times, 20120-08-22 (http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2012/08/117_117973.html)