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| An oil tanker is being built by workers at Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering at the company's dock in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, July 23. Courtesy of DSME |
By Ko Dong-hwan
The Ministry of Employment and Labor has taken a step forward to tackle the ongoing labor shortage in the manufacturing sector by opening wider Korea's door for migrant workers.
The measure is aimed at filling a total of about 234,000 current vacancies in key local industries like shipbuilding, metal manufacturing, restaurants, retailers, taxi and bus transportation, as well as other fields, according to the ministry on Monday.
The ministry said that the demand for workers of foreign nationality in Korea is so high that applicants for those spots can start working within a month.
In last June alone, the shipbuilding industry was in need of 4,800 workers, the metal industry 27,000 workers, restaurants and retailers 14,200 workers and taxis and buses 2,300 workers.
The measure will increase the existing quota for migrant workers in the country and also expedite the legal procedures for their entry here.
Migrants in search of work and employers in need of workers will also be more closely monitored and connected to each other with the help of the authority.
More specifically, the ministry's latest measure will increase the foreign workforce in the country's metal manufacturing industry by 6,000, raising the industry's quota for foreign workers from the currently set 10,480. In shipbuilding, the screening bar for foreign nationals applying will also be raised, with the government to revise the country's Special Activity (E-7) Visa law by shutting down the quota that has so far been reserved for those with expertise in welding and painting.
The shipbuilding and metal manufacturing industries have particularly been short of workers throughout the year, according to the ministry. To solve the problem, the authority has decided to launch a task force in 17 government employment centers in regions across the country where the two industries are the most developed to help the centers hire foreign workers more easily.
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| In this photo from August 2020, a welder works on a manhole. Newsis |
To improve the working environment for shipbuilding, the ministry has also decided to increase the upper age limit from 34 to 45 for an existing government welfare program that rewards those who signed up for the bank savings product. For young people from the age of 15, those employed in a small-to-medium-size local firm (with registered employees numbering five or more) can receive a total of 12 million won ($9,200) from the ministry after working for two years at the same firm without missing a workday while having saved 3 million won in their bank account registered for the product.
The ministry, in cases of immediate demand for more workers in shipbuilding, will also allow foreign workers to work for a longer period.
An employment approval document issued by the government to foreign nationals hired by local firms, which had previously been issued only once in the third and fourth quarters of each year, will also be issued in advance within this month under the latest measure. The measure will also give an early green light to 50,000 of a total of 63,000 foreign nationals with the document to come to the country by the end of this year. That figure, including those who already arrived in Korea before July of this year, will make it possible for a total of 84,000 new migrant workers to work in Korea this year.
The fundamental reasons behind the workforce shortage in shipbuilding and metal manufacturing are the precarious working conditions and a "degenerative" hierarchical employment system that hires a broker agency to recruit workers instead ― thereby raising the risk of the original employers avoiding their responsibilities to foreign nationals injured in workplace accidents or suffering from mistreatment in the workplace ― according to the country's employment minister, Lee Jung-sik.
"We will continue innovating the country's labor market to solve those chronic problems," the minister said Monday.
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