Concern rises over sex offenders working as deliverymen
Concern is rising over a lack of regulations to ban convicted sex offenders from working as deliverymen or chauffeurs ― two areas of employment that are flourishing with the development of mobile technology that allows easier access to the services. / Korea Times photo by Kim Jin-ung
By Kim Jae-heun
Concern is rising over a lack of regulations to ban convicted sex offenders from working as deliverymen or chauffeurs ― two areas of employment that are flourishing with the development of mobile technology that allows easier access to the services.
As such, calls for restrictions are rising as people working in these fields are given customers' personal information and meet them face-to-face.
According to data submitted by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family to Rep. Song Ok-joo of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), Friday, there are 37 jobs that sex offenders cannot apply for under the relevant law. These are mostly positions at public institutions or organizations including theaters, museums, arboretums and property management offices.
Once a year the ministry checks on whether anyone convicted of a sex crime is working at such places ― between 2017 and 2018 it dismissed 187 former offenders who had gained employment at them.
Under the current law, there is no way to prevent such people from working as a deliveryman or chauffeur. According to a separate law on freight transportation, sex offenders cannot work for freight or parcel services for a period of 20 years following conviction, but delivery services using scooters or motorcycle are exempt from this.
“The government has failed not only to provide legislation on the issue, but also to understand how many sex offenders are currently working as deliverymen or chauffeurs,” Song said.
Moreover, anybody can start a delivery service without restriction if they register their business with the local authorities. The Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said such a system makes it difficult for them to properly monitor who works in the delivery service sector.
Members of the general public are showing concern over the issue.
A mother of two children posted a petition on Cheong Wa Dae's website Oct. 8, demanding that sex offenders be banned from working as deliverymen or chauffeurs.
Local authorities send notifications to households with children, listing the names and photographs of sex offenders living nearby if a court orders the disclosure of their personal information. According to the petitioner, she spotted one such person driving a scooter for a delivery service.
“I wanted to let other mothers know about this, so I wrote a post about it on an online community of mothers in the region. Then the delivery service company owner threatened to sue me for business obstruction,” she said.
“A delivery service job is one in which the workers meet customers face-to-face and know their address, phone number and about their family members. It is unreasonable for a sex offender to be allowed to work at such a job.”
The petition had nearly 24,500 subscribers as of Friday afternoon.
“We need to establish a control tower to manage the scattered system restricting sex offenders' employment as a whole, and to make sure the platform services market is not misused for crimes,” Rep. Song said.