30% of firms break law on migrant workers

Three out of every 10 businesses that hire migrant workers were found have breached the law on their employment in each of the past few years, Labor Ministry data showed Monday.

Rep. Jasmine Lee of the ruling Saenuri Party cited the figures on breaches of the Act on the Employment etc. of Foreign Workers, which affects migrant workers on E-9 and H-2 visas, during the parliamentary audit on the ministry. The percentage of firms in violation of the law came to 31.3 percent in 2012, 31.2 percent in 2013 and 32.9 percent in the first half of 2014.

Lee said that a large portion of violations related to unfair treatment of migrant workers.

During the first half of 2014, 569 of 1,728 companies that were subject to investigations failed to abide by stipulations set by the law.

Further, the proportion of firms who violate the Labor Standards Act has continued to increase ― from 10.4 percent in 2012 to 15.4 percent in 2013 and 19.8 percent in the first half 2014.

Some companies were found to have paid less than the minimum wage, with 4.2 percent doing so in 2012, 6.8 percent in 2013 and 4.4 percent in the first half of 2014.

“Failing to treat migrant workers properly according to their working performance is a serious problem. The Ministry of Employment and Labor should reinforce the supervision of rule violators,” she said.

According to Statistics Korea, 7 out of 10 foreign workers in Korea were paid less than 2 million won ($1,800) a month last year.

About 525,000 foreign workers were paid less than 2 million won in 2013. They took up 71.4 percent of the total 735,000 salaried non-Korean employees on all visas.

Of them, the monthly wage for 42,000 workers was below 1 million won, accounting for more than 5 percent of all foreign workers.

About 159,000 non-Koreans were paid between 2 million won and 3 million won, while the number of foreign workers whose wages exceeded 3 million won came to 51,000.

By gender, 84.6 percent of the 241,000 female foreign employees were paid less than 2 million won.

Meanwhile, the ministry plans to bring in about 53,000 migrant workers on the non-professional employment (E-9) visa by the end of 2014, an increase of 3,000 from a year earlier.

The figure includes about 5,600 workers with a reentry visa under the government’s foreign work permit system.

They are being assigned largely to the manufacturing, construction, agriculture and fishing industries, which are suffering a worsening labor shortage.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)