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In spite of the legal quotas, a majority of Korean firms continue to avoid hiring the disabled. The number of handicapped people at firms with 300 or more workers is accounting for a mere 0.54 percent of the total workforce of 1.95 million. The rate is merely slightly higher than that of previous years. The disabled made up 0.43 percent of the workforce in 1995, 0.45 percent in 1996, and 0.46 percent in 1997.

According to the Korea Employment Promotion Agency for the Disabled, nine out of 10 companies are not meeting the government-ordered requirement to fill 2 percent of their payrolls with handicapped workers.

About 1,919 companies with more than 300 employees are required to meet the quota, but official statistics showed that as of last year, only 197 or 10.3 percent of them were meeting their obligation. The figures also showed that the 1,919 companies had a total of 1.95 million employees but only 10,625 or 0.54 percent were disabled.

Agency officials said that manufacturing companies employed the most disabled people with 5,478, while transportation, storage and communications-related companies were second with 976.

Besides, the employment rate of disabled people at the nation's 30 largest conglomerates was 0.53 percent, substantially lower than the average. The 30 companies together employed 2,259 disabled people. Based on their total employment figures, these companies legally should employed 14,460.

Firms with 300 or more employees are required to fill 2 percent of their staff with disabled workers, or else pay a monthly penalty of 202,000 won per head. The 30 companies naturally paid the lion's share of the penalties collected for failing to meet the employment quota for the disabled. Of the 71.4 billion won collected last year in penalties, they paid 31.3 billion won.

The public sector did little better in giving the disabled a chance to work, posting a 1.23 percent employment rate. A total of 83 public firms hired 3,413 disabled people last year. Of them 9 firms met the minimum 2 percent quota. Officials said the Labor Ministry would continue to work at revising relevant laws and increasing subsidies to encourage firms to hire more disabled people.

Firms are currently eligible to receive as much as 90 percent of the legal minimum wage, 343,650 won per month, in subsidies for up to three years for every disabled worker they hire.

In a bid to resolve the problem, the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Health & Welfare already announced that they would boost support for 50 job training centers for the disabled and offer financial incentives for companies meeting the 2 percent quota. Many people, however, said that wide publicity is preferentially needed to increase public awareness of the challenges facing the nation's disabled population.