Welcome to BASE21

By Lee Eun-joo
Assistant General, Yangsan Migrant Workers' House

On the evening of December 13, a freezing winters day, we managed to reach a conclusion on the research on the actual condition of foreign industrial trainees, which has been conducted over the last year, with many twists and turns and finished with a seminar.

Faced with the daunting task from the beginning to final analysis and publication of the research data, we had to conserve all our energies for the final report on the research and the related seminar. We raised the question of what should be focused on at the seminar and were afraid of reconfirming the truth that it would be chaos for those who participated and had different points of view on the Trainee Employment System (TES), when it started.
The title of this event was 2001 Final report on research on the actual condition of foreign industrial trainees in the Yangsan area. The seminar, called Improving the Foreign Trainee Employment System, was aimed at sharing opinions and seeking ways to improve the system among parties concerned with TES, leaving their own interests behind. It was important not only to include migrant worker's perspectives and real conditions, but also to contain information about company situations.

During the research process, we could see the truth that structural contradictions of TES have caused problems regarding human rights and has provided an unreasonable system for companies as well. The final report, presented at the seminar after ceaseless effort, was based on migrant workers and companies that have used TES, over a one-year period.

Officially, more than 300,000 migrant workers, nearly 400,000 unofficially, have been living here as neighbours in our society. The Korean government, self-governing bodies and many concerned organizations, however, don't have useful information and sufficient man power to handle this condition, even though they should understand this situation thoroughly and provide adequate political measures or support. Therefore, we carried out the research to gain proper data and take supportive measures by stepping into the private-government cooperation project. We also tried to strengthen our demand that TES be improved.

The research was planned in 2000 and approved as a support project by South Kyoung-sang province in 2001. Starting in 2001, we launched investigative operations and sorted out the target of the research. In the hot months of July and August, volunteers were willing to make visits and conduct interviews in person. Analysis, proof reading and publication of the report followed.

The final result of the report noted that either migrant industrial trainees or the companies that have operated TES, due to a shortage of labour because of the structural contradictions of TES itself, have not welcomed the existing TES.

In addition to the trouble experienced during research, holding a seminar was even harder.

This was because not only the human right's organizations concerned, but also our members were too busy to attend the seminar on a weekday afternoon. Employers were not welcoming and sceptical, saying, "How can you think of urging us to attend during such a busy time? What will be changed by the seminar?"
Inviting the debaters was also not easy.
The Labour Administration was reluctant to participate in the discussion for the reason that no policy was provided after the Employment Permission System was stranded by KFSB, Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business. We asked many employers to attend the seminar on behalf of companies, but they were also not free from KFSB and seemed not to be fully prepared to answer questions about expected pending problems from human rights organizations at the seminar. Therefore, the labour administration had a keynote report about legal human rights measures, which are given from the Labour Administration to companies that use TES and must be observed. On the companies part, they tried to find out what the real problems are for the companies that did participate.

The seminar commenced at 3:00 p.m. in the 2nd floor seminar office of the Labour Administration building. Forty people from the Provincial Office, Local Yangsan Labour Office, Yangsan Committee of Korea Confederation of Trade Unions, companies employing migrant workers, administrations for foreign workers human rights in South Kyoung-sang province, concerned organizations and including a few people who are interested in migrant workers human rights were present.

An Duck-han, President of Yangsan Migrant Workers' House, gave the opening speech, followed by the Manager of Yangsan Labour Office and the International Cooperation Team Manager in South Kyoung-sang province giving words of encouragement. Lee Ji-yeon then presented the results of the research on the actual condition of foreign industrial trainees and a question & answer session ensued. The main questions were about what was different about this research compared to previous ones and what action should be taken against companies that did not follow the minimum wage system.

After a short break, we heard about the dilemma of the companies concerned. Some companies insisted on wages being cut, citing reason of unfairness in applying the minimum wage system. Other companies pointed out migrant workers' breaking contracts, even though they were treated well, and raised their voices about implementing fundamental measures to handle these contract breakers.
Lee Ok-soo, a labour inspector from the Labour Administration, followed, citing parts of the Labour Standard Law applied to foreign industrial trainees.

Finally, Jeong Gue-sun, President of FWR, Association for Foreign Workers Human Rights in Busan, spoke about the realistic and structural problems foreign industrial trainees and foreign workers have suffered from, based upon the finial result of the research.
As we can see, the labour market and human rights about entire foreign workers on the side of social structure, She pointed out that the most serious problem is the, Increasing number of undocumented workers. She also stressed that company labour shortages and a violation of human rights will continue if there is no significant improvement of TES and that correction of the system is inevitable.

Ms. Jeong used the example of emigration of nurses and miners to Germany in the 1970's. During this time, Germany adopted foreign workers to take unpopular work like dangerous, dirty, and difficult jobs, calling them 'Guest Workers', applying the same work payment system without any discrimination of nationality, and asked the Korean government to teach migrant workers German for at least 2 months before entering Germany.

Ms. Jeong's speech was applauded by all the participants and convinced even the members from the companies hiring trainees. It also created a tacit consent between participants, even if it was only for a short time.

Due to the seminar running longer than we had expected, the question-and-answer session was continued at a tea party. This seminar was not a big event, but it did have a precious result; which was to recognize that there is common ground, despite different points of view, which will be an initial clue to solve pending problems.

We are sorry about our lack of sufficient preparation, conclusions and alternative plans, but we had an opportunity to see our insufficiencies and to learn and experience trial and error through these processes. We wish we could have held an open forum to debate ways to improve TES, using other country's cases in the near future.
Furthermore, we hope this seminar was only the first step to seek reasonable alternative measures.