Participants look around exhibition booths during the World Culture Festival at Daewangam Park in Ulsan, hosted by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and sponsored by the Ulsan Dong-gu Office in this Oct. 29 file photo. Yonhap

Safety guidelines and warning messages written in multiple languages are nothing new anymore at Korea's domestic shipyards that have been relying more heavily on migrant labor.

Near the entrance to a welding factory on SK oceanplant's main yard in Goseong County, South Gyeongsang Province, guidelines on safety gear are written in six languages along with pictograms.

The shipbuilding subsidiary of SK ecoplant, which also exports substructures of offshore wind turbines, is no different from its competitors, in terms of struggling to secure welders and painters from Asian countries, amid a shortage of Korean workers.

“Due to the labor shortage, we have hired many workers from Thailand for welding and painting jobs,” Jeon Myung-woo, senior managing director of SK oceanplant, said earlier this month at the company's shipyard. “We are looking for additional workers from Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and China.”

This combined photo shows the wall of SK oceanplant's welding factory displaying safety guidelines written in six languages, left, and Hanwha Ocean's virtual reality spray-gun training system that supports multiple foreign languages. Korea Times photos by Park Jae-hyuk

A message asking people not to throw paper towels in the toilet is written in eight languages inside a Hanwha Ocean's shipyard restroom on Geoje Island, South Gyeongsang Province, Oct. 27. Korea Times photo by Park Jae-hyuk

Hanwha Ocean, which also hung warning messages written in seven languages in every corner of its shipyard on Geoje Island, South Gyeongsang Province, adopted a virtual reality spray-gun training system that supports various foreign languages for painters, most of whom come from Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries.

“Voice guidance in foreign languages is also available thanks to artificial intelligence technology,” a Hanwha Ocean employee said last month at the company's shipyard located near many Asian food restaurants and grocery stores.

A senior official of HD Hyundai, the parent firm of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries and Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, noted that the typical image of foreigners wandering around shipyards has already changed from Caucasian ship owners to Asian shipbuilding workers.

“Residents of Yeongam County, South Jeolla Province, are already used to living together with foreign workers at Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries' shipyard,” he said. “It may take time for Ulsan residents to become familiar with foreign workers at HD HHI's shipyard, but the residents will accept the workers for the city and the shipbuilding industry to survive.”

Remaining obstacles

In early 2022, some Ulsan residents opposed the deployment of Afghan refugees to HD HHI's shipyard, urging the government to prevent their children from going to local elementary schools with Korean students.

News outlets published reports earlier this year about an increasing number of foreign shipbuilding workers quitting their jobs and leaving the shipyards. This apparent trend has raised concerns that the government will be unable to keep track of migrant workers.

A recent survey by the Korean Metal Workers' Union also showed that six out of 10 migrant workers at Korea's domestic shipyards hope to change their jobs due to their low wages and tough labor conditions.

Afghan refugees deliver a plaque of appreciation to HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) CEO Lee Sang-kyun at the company's headquarters in Ulsan in this Feb. 9 file photo. Courtesy of HD HHI

Measures for foreigners to take root

As part of efforts to overcome the prejudice against migrant workers, HD HHI recently organized a vigilante group consisting of foreign employees, working in collaboration with the Ulsan Dongbu Police Station. HD Hyundai's affiliates are also running support centers that offer translation and administrative services and handle complaints, in order to prevent foreigners from working in bad conditions.

Samsung Heavy Industries gave permanent positions to some foreign welders, unlike most other major shipbuilders that ask their subcontractors to send migrant laborers to shipyards.

Hanwha Ocean is running a coordinator program to ask foreign workers familiar with Korean culture and the language to help their colleagues from abroad to adapt.

The Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Association, a lobby group for domestic shipbuilders, rewarded two foreign workers for their contribution to Korea's shipbuilding industry during the celebration of the 20th Shipbuilding and Offshore Day in September. This was the first time for foreigners to be among the prize winners of the annual event.

Considering the fact that the inflow of foreign workers cushions negative impacts caused by the declining population, outside of capital areas, municipalities have looked to encourage better ways to live together with migrants.

Ulsan, which saw an increase in its population this year for the first time in seven years, formed a council to listen to complaints from foreign workers and help them adapt to Korea, learn Korean and get medical services.

The city government of Geoje, which is home to the shipyards of Hanwha Ocean and Samsung Heavy, has kept trying to host a support center for foreign workers, which is under the supervision of the labor ministry, although the plan ended in failure this year due to the central government's budget shortage.

“During our meetings with shipbuilding industry officials, they mentioned difficulties in communicating with foreign workers as the biggest problem, so we plan to teach basic Korean language and culture to foreign workers,” the city government official said.

The cover of the book published by Seojeong University professors to help foreign workers learn Korean words used in welding jobs

Complaints about the language barrier at domestic shipyards prompted professors at Seojeong University in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, to publish a book in September on Korean words used in welding jobs. The professors who taught foreign students are also set to publish another book regarding Korean words used in painting-based jobs.

“The main purpose of our book is to help foreign workers do their jobs after understanding behavioral verbs,” the authors said in an introduction to the book. “We used as many images as possible for the readers to understand Korean words and expressions more quickly.”

According to the government, 12,339 foreign nationals holding E-7 or E-9 visas were sent to shipyards during the first three quarters of this year. As the government has eased visa rules throughout this year for shipbuilders to satisfy the increasing global demand for vessels, more migrant laborers are expected to join domestic shipyards next year.