The government announced Monday it will craft new foreign employment guidelines so that small and medium-sized businesses can legally employ foreign workers as part of efforts to crackdown on illegal immigrant problems. Minister of Labor Bang Yong-suk reported the ministry's administrative plans for this year to President Kim Dae-jung saying his office will devise a new system by June 2002 to tackle problems of illegal migrant workers, which account for 78% or 258,000 of the total foreign workforce to date.

Bang said employers wanting to hire foreign workers will have to register in the Employment Security Center.

For the successful hosting of the 2002 World Cup Finals, the ministry also plans to instruct employers to settle salary or group negotiations before the opening of the event. Those who fail to do so should delay negotiations until after July. Bang said prior to the World Cup finals the ministry was focusing on the prevention of strikes by calling for cooperation from labor and management of businesses such as airliners, buses and subways which have much to do with the World Cup event.

He said the ministry was also proceeding with the enactment of the bill on the measure for expanding the range of legal protection on irregular workers, which is the subject of negotiations by the trilateral committee of labor, management and the government.

The minister is also planning to increase the number of mid to small businesses' industrial training complement from six to 15, to introduce employees' health insurance employers with more than 50 employees and to increase punishment for violators of the Law on Sexual Discrimination.

(Kim Dong-seop, dskim@chosun.com )