By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter

The Ministry of Justice has eased penalties for employers of illegal foreign workers.

This softer policy comes at a time when small- and medium-sized firms are suffering from manpower shortages, but is contrary to its overall policy of reducing illegal immigrant workers.

Under the new rule, companies will face a one-year ban on hiring additional foreigners if they are caught employing illegal foreign workers. Currently, the ban is three years.

This rule will be applied retrospectively, making it possible for nearly 3,030 companies to hire foreign workers again this month.

"It will help ease the chronic workforce shortage at small companies," the ministry said. But side effects are expected as firms might hire more undocumented foreigners due to the lighter penalty.

The plan comes at a time when the government is facing growing criticism from small companies that say the drastic cut in foreign worker quotas earlier this year is a major culprit behind illegal employment.

In March, the Ministry of Labor slashed the number of work visas - H-2 and E-9 - issued to foreigners from 100,000 to 34,000, a measure aimed at providing more job opportunities for Koreans amid the worsening job market.

"Increasing the quota would be a better solution," Cho Jae-woo, president of Sammyung Engineering, a small plastics manufacturer at an industrial complex in Incheon, told The Korea Times.

Cho's company benefits from the new rule. "Virtually no Korean wants what people call 3D jobs - dirty, dangerous and difficult. In this context, businessmen have no choice but to seek foreign workers, whether legal or not. But the quota reduction made it harder for them to seek legitimate foreign workers."

The government has no plan to hike the quota, at least until next March.

The justice ministry said the new rule will not affect the ongoing crackdown on foreigners overstaying their visas, which will continue until the middle of next month.

pss@koreatimes.co.kr