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| A Cambodian laborer, bottom, works at a farm in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province in this January 2021 photo. Korea Times file |
By Ko Dong-hwan
For non-professional migrant workers, changing their place of work will become trickier as the Korean government announced new regulations following complaints that many such workers often seek to change workplaces only months after arrival in the country.
The Office for Government Policy Coordination announced the updates for E-9 visa holders, Wednesday. The new rules will take effect in September and will be applied to migrant workers who visit Korea for the first time under the visa.
The new rules followed complaints from small- and medium-sized company owners that foreign workers switch jobs too frequently, asking them to terminate employment contracts so that they can move to other workplaces. When employers refuse, employees work slowly in protest, according to the owners.
E-9 visa holders, who are eligible to stay in Korea for three years and an additional 22 months, have to work at their first workplaces for at least the first three years. But they can change workplaces in some cases, such as the closure of a business, delays in the payment of wages or when their employment contract is terminated with the consent of the employer.
More than 31 percent of E-9 visa holders changed their first workplace within the first year of entry into the country, according to the office.
Under the new rules, changing workplaces will be permissible only within the same industry and the same region, with the government planning to divide the country into several regional zones such as Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Jeolla Province. Currently, there are no regulations stipulating regions, only job sectors.
The new rules will also allow Korean employers with an unexpected shortage of migrant workers to hire replacement workers more promptly. Up until now, employers have been required to find replacements from a local pool of Korean workers for up to two weeks before attempting to hire migrant workers. The new rules will eliminate the mandatory period making it possible for employees to immediately select migrant workers over Korean workers.
To mitigate misunderstanding and tensions between Korean employers and migrant workers, the office will also launch a new division that acts as an arbitrator and an archiver of data on foreign workers regarding history and other information on their workplace changes.
The new rules also have incentives for migrant workers. One of the incentives stipulates that those with high work skills and at least two years of experience at the same workplace do not have to leave and re-enter the country for visa renewal.
