Global Center to offer industrial accident aid

Seoul Global Center will start consultations on industrial accidents for foreign residents from Tuesday.

The weekly service, offered every Tuesday from 2-5 p.m. at the support center for expatriates, will be provided in seven languages including English, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese.

With the number of foreign workers here surging recently, many have complained of difficulty finding proper help when they are injured at work, the support center said.

Most of them are not good at speaking Korean and lack legal knowledge. Moreover, when they are undocumented workers, it is much more difficult for them to seek compensation for industrial accidents.

Of the nearly 770,000 foreign workers in Korea, 82.9 percent are engaged in the manufacturing industry, while 7.8 percent and 6.2 percent in agricultural and construction sectors, respectively.

There were 5,599 injured foreign workers in 2010, making up 5.7 percent of the total industrial accident cases in the year, the center said.

“Through the new service, we expect that foreign workers who are considered a social minority can get help in seeking legal compensation,” said Oh Seung-hwan, Seoul City’s director of foreign residents assistance.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)