Migrant workers protest against Employment Permit System

Migrant workers in South Korea staged a rally calling for the abolishment of the Employment Permit System, Sunday.

Some five hundred laborers from organizations such as the Alliance for Migrants’ Equality and Human Rights and Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, gathered around Bosingak Bell in downtown Seoul for the rally.

The rally came after a Nepali worker, who couldn’t leave his ill-treating employer due to the EPS, died by suicide earlier this month.

“The EPS, a modern-day slavery system, keeps the workers from changing their workplaces without their employer’s agreement, forcing unfair working conditions upon them,” said Choi, Jong-jin, interim chairman of KCTU.

The EPS invites unskilled workers from 15 countries but they are allowed to change their workplace only up to three times during a three-year period.

In addition to the EPS, deportation of undocumented immigrants, abuse of Article 63 of the Labor Standards Act were among migrant labor issues brought up in the rally.

(mjk625@heraldcorp.com)