| Two workers install a steel building frame at a construction site in Seoul in this file photo. Newsis |
By Park Jae-hyuk
Domestic builders are in talks with the government about increasing the supply of foreign construction workers amid an intensifying shortage of laborers at construction sites, according to industry officials, Tuesday.
In response to a request from the Korea Specialty Contractors Association (KOSCA) last month for eased regulations on hiring foreign construction workers, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport discussed the issue with the association and also with the Construction Association of Korea and the Construction & Economy Research Institute of Korea.
The KOSCA asked the ministry especially to increase or eliminate existing quotas on foreign construction workers holding E-9 or H-2 visas. The association also proposed pardoning employers restricted from hiring migrant workers for up to three years, due to their use of undocumented migrant labor.
These suggestions were made as more young Korean nationals have been turning away from work that involves manual labor.
According to a survey by the Construction Workers Mutual Aid Association, the number of workers of Korean nationality at construction sites stood at 1.53 million last year, despite demand for 1.75 million workers. As there are only 65,000 construction workers of foreign nationality holding E-9 or H-2 visas, local builders appear to have hired 150,000 foreign workers illegally last year.
“In the wake of the eased quarantine measures this year, the number of newly employed construction workers has decreased, while more workers have left the industry,” the association said in a report.
Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, the floor leader of the ruling conservative People Power Party, also said last month that foreign workers should be allowed to arrive in Korea as soon as possible to solve the labor shortage in the construction industry.
In order to solve the problem, domestic builders have continuously urged the government to increase the supply of construction workers of foreign nationality.
Beginning late last year, KOSCA submitted its request to the Office for Government Policy Coordination and the National Assembly's Environment & Labor Committee, as well as the land ministry.
The labor ministry, however, did not include the construction industry among the sectors that will be supplied with a large number of foreign workers. According to the ministry's announcement earlier this month, additional workers of foreign nationality will be sent to shipyards, factories, farms, public transport operations and small restaurants and stores.
The labor ministry explained it had made that decision, as local builders have not completed hiring the annual quota of 2,400 foreign workers. However, industry officials pointed out that most builders are banned at this moment from hiring foreign labor, as a disciplinary measure for having illegally employing undocumented people.