Working Permition for Migrant Workers - A Step Forward in the Right Direction
South Korea's Ministry of Labor is moving to allow foreign industrial trainees to hold wage-earning positions, beginning as early as July, according to the daily JoongAng Ilbo, March 29. The new job category will replace the trainee program, which is more a kind of modern slavery as anything else.
Source :  BASE21
by Christian / Base21 Media Activists
dvs-b@t-online.de
South Korea's Ministry of Labor is moving to allow foreign industrial trainees to hold wage-earning positions, beginning as early as July, according to the daily JoongAng Ilbo, March 29. The new job category will replace the trainee program, which is more a kind of modern slavery as anything else.
Of course small businesses are already voicing concern that the new system will lead to higher expenses that could "cripple" their companies.
The new employment permit program will make foreign workers wage-earners and thus entitled to the same rights as Korean workers. This means the right to organize, seek collective bargaining and to take collective action. They will also be entitled to workers' compensation and minimum wage.
The changes will become law if the final draft of the government's proposal is adopted by the National Assembly, JoongAng Ilbo wrote.
Smaller businesses are concerned, so JoongAng Ilbo, that under the new program for these foreign workers, who fill jobs Koreans tend to avoid, such as factory employment, their cost would be prohibitively high. Monthly wages are expected to rise to nearly 1 million won ($800). "Trainees" are paid about 500,000 won per month, sometimes much more less.
If this will be true in the near future it could be a first step in the right direction. But ETU-MB and the migrant workers won't be quiet until the South Korean gov't will fulfill all their demands.
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