The industrial trainee system permitted companies making overseas investments is being operated illegally and it is shocking that government authorities are looking the other way.
Legally, the only worksites allowed to participate in that program are companies with direct investments overseas or that have US$100,000 or more in technology or US$500,000 in industrial equipment and facilities that have been exported. According to a study of 2,178 companies by the Korea Labor Institute (KLI), however, only 776, or 43.3 percent of them, have direct investments overseas. That means a considerable number of them create fake legal entities in foreign countries and then bring in industrial trainees on that basis. It should be noted that KLI based its study in raw Justice Ministry data, ''evidence" of how the ministry is not doing all it is supposed to as the government department responsible for overseeing the trainee program. Ministry guidelines require there be a review of both companies and trainees at least once a year. Everyone in the industry, however, says the ministry does not have the slightest desire to implement those guidelines.
The most important issue here is that when the "industrial training" is done illegally, can lead to abuses of civil rights. Indeed, most of the trainees brought here illegally do simple labor for more than 12 hours a day. Since legally they are workers at companies located in other countries, they cannot receive the protections guaranteed by domestic labor law. The employment of illegal foreign workers by conglomerates and major companies hurts conditions for the employment of domestic workers. In addition, the so-called "illegal residents," migrant workers, are being "hunted" all over the country. If the Justice Ministry ignores the illegal activity of conglomerates and other major companies it is more than problematic, it is itself illegal activity. The Justice Ministry must lead the way in cracking down on the illegality, and the Labor Ministry, in turn, should not forever just stand by idly.
The Hankyoreh, 4 January 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Crack Down on 'Illegal Industrial Training' |
