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The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) hailed
Saturday the passage of three new laws in South Korea aimed at
protecting foreign workers from abuse and exploitation.
“In behalf of the Philippine
government and the families of OFWs [overseas Filipino workers] in
South Korea, I express my deep appreciation of the Korean
government’s efforts to protect nonregular workers many of whom
are foreigners including OFWs in South Korea,” Labor Secretary
Arturo Brion said.
Citing a report from the
Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Seoul, Brion said the new labor
laws and the latest jurisprudence would benefit overseas OFWs
including those who entered South Korea as industrial trainees.
Seoul-based Labor Attaché
Rodolfo Sabulao said the three new laws that would take effect on
July 1 are the Contractual and Part-time Worker Protection Act,
Dispatched Worker Protection Act and the New Labor Relations Act.
The Contractual and Part-time
Worker Protection Act provides that an employer may hire contract
workers for two years or less, and that any contractual employed for
more than two years would be considered as full-time worker with an
open-ended contract.
The employers are also prohibited
from requiring part-time workers to work beyond contracted work
hours without their consent. Employers are also not allowed to
discriminate contract workers against regular workers who are
engaged in the same type of work.
Contract workers who suffered
from discrimination in terms of wages and other benefits may file a
complaint with the Labor Relations Commission.
The Dispatched Worker Protection
Act reinforces the employers’ obligation not to discriminate
against dispatched or temporary workers supplied by staffing
agencies. Dispatched workers who are employed for more than two
years should be hired directly.
Violating employers would be
penalized with a fine of up to 30 million won, or about P1.5
million.
The New Labor Relations Act
establishes the Commission for Discrimination Correction as an
entity of the Labor Relations Commission tasked to handle workers
complaint of discrimination.
Brion said the new Korean labor
laws are a welcome development in the efforts to promote the welfare
and ensure the protection of OFWs whose number is increasing in
South Korea.
He noted that the developments in
labor and employment in South Korea boost this country as a growing
market for OFWs.
South Korea’s Supreme Court
also ruled recently that foreign workers on a training program are
entitled to minimum wages and retirement pay equivalent to their
Korean peers.
Sabulao also reported that the
Korean Supreme Court has issued a ruling providing that foreign
workers on a training program are entitled to minimum wages and
retirement pay equivalent to those provided Korean workers.
He said South Korea has
integrated this year the Industrial Training Program into the
Employment Permit System which
entitles foreign workers to full labor rights, adding that some
12,000 Filipino workers who entered South Korea under the training
program stand to benefit from the new policy.
Data from the Philippine Overseas
Employment Administration (POEA) showed that the number of OFWs
deployed to South Korea has risen from 8,392 in 2004 to 9,975 in
2005.
In the first six months of 2006,
about 8,329 OFWs were sent to South Korea, representing
83.5 percent of the total
deployment to that country in 2005.
--William B. Depasupil
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