By Park Chung-a
Staff Reporter
Foreign professionals under contract in 16 fields, including lawyers, medical doctors and university lecturers with Ph.Ds may not become regular workers even if they have been working for a company for more than two years.
The Ministry of Labor said on Thursday that it revised ordinances of a non-regular worker protection bill to exclude some contracted professionals from labor protection.
The revision was made prior to the application of non-regular worker protection in July that will force companies to give regular-worker status to non-regulars who have been working at a company for more than two years.
As a result of the revision, part-time lecturers with Ph.Ds or professionals under contract with certificates in 16 fields including lawyers, medical doctors, Oriental herb medicine doctors, chartered tax accountants, patent attorneys, architects, dentists, pharmacists and veterinarians are exempt.
The provision on university lecturers is stirring controversy because it excludes only those with Ph.Ds, while employers will still be required to give regular worker status to those with master's degrees.
The revision also excludes people hired under government support programs and other contracted professionals with annual income of more than 69 million won.
``The revision is aimed at increasing flexibility and stability of labor market and strengthening the rights of non-regular workers from low income brackets,'' said Labor Minister Lee Sang-soo. ``It will become effective in July after the government holds a public hearing to gather opinions from labor circles as well as employers on the issue.''
Employers of state-run organizations and companies with at least 300 workers that do not specify working conditions for their fixed-term workers on paper will be subject to fines of up to 1.8 million won per worker. Also, those who do not abide by it will be obliged to pay fines of up to 5 million won per worker.
According to the revision, the number of work types with which people can work as dispatched workers will increase from 138 to 187. Consequently, the number of dispatched workers is expected to increase up to 80,000 this year from 66,315 last year.
Also, the legitimacy of companies' dispatch of workers will be based on the actual relationship between the company and its dispatched workers regardless of the forms or names on contracts.
While labor circles says that the government's move goes against the rights of non-regular workers, management says that the expansion of exception is insufficient and it should increase the number of work types that can be permitted for employee-dispatching for more flexibility in the labor market.
The two flagship labor groups, Korea Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU), said that such ordinances will only cause an increase of non-regular workers and they will congregate their efforts to block legislation of the revision.
Lee Soo-young, chairman of the Korea Employers Federation, said that the government's move is not much of help for management. ``It is common sense to exclude high-income professionals like doctors or lawyers from being regular workers."