New provision to ease life of migrant workers in South Korea

Migrant workers in South Korea can change their work site and join their desired company if the employer failed to make better arrangements for accommodation.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment of South Korea government has implemented a regulation allowing the migrant worker to change his/her work site in case the employer kept them in sub-standard shelters. 

The labour unions here had been pressing the government to improve the accommodation conditions and the employment permit system (EPS) for migrant workers after a Cambodian female migrant worker kept in 'green house' died of hypothermia last December. 

The Ministry has stated that it was preparing to introduce more measures in collaboration with related government agencies to bring about improvement in the living conditions of the foreign citizens working in South Korea under EPS. 

In this connection, the Ministry has introduced laws that allow the migrant workers working in companies that have provided shabby accommodation to them to change their working site and prohibit the proprietors of such companies to keep foreign workers. 

Currently the foreign migrant workers are authorized to change their place of work three times in their first work term and two times under the second agreement. The permission of the employer company is mandatory for changing the company. 

Provisions like the EPS worker who wants to change the company, if he/she wants to work in Korea again after completing the five-year term, is required to again sit for language test. 

The law allows the migrant workers to change their work station if it is proved that the employer has been physically and sexually abusing the worker, misbehaving towards the worker, subjecting him/her to inhumane treatment, unnecessarily delaying the payment or any other wrongdoing.