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The Busan Regional Labor Office has begun a probe into a Chinese laborer who informed authorities there that he received no severance pay even though he worked for three years at a factory in the southern port city. If he is found to have worked in Korea without a work visa, then he faces deportation. But even faced with that possibility, the laborer hoped to receive his severance money. A day before he was set to appear before Busan labor officials, he received a call from his factory saying his money was ready. When he visited the factory, he was arrested by police and handed over to immigration authorities.
A similar incident took place in August of last year. A laborer from the Philippines who worked for 15 to 20 hours a day for two years at a factory in Pohang appeared before labor officials in the southern port city after his employer allegedly refused to pay him wages and severance pay. This laborer was also arrested by an immigration officer while he was being investigated by labor officials along with his employer. The employer had called immigration authorities. These are cases that have been revealed by a civic group in Busan working to help foreign migrant workers.
These are embarrassing incidents for Korea. They involve dirty tricks to get people to work and then not pay them, preying on their weaknesses as illegal visitors. What will these laborers say about Korea after they have been deported back to their home countries? As civic activists are calling for, the laws must be changed so that these laborers can receive their due wages, even if they are deported.
According to Labor Ministry statistics, 1,059 companies failed to pay wages to foreign migrant workers last year, with 1,841 workers being owed W4.05 billion (US$1=W944). The actual amount of pay owed is likely much higher if you include cases that were not included in the government statistics. Out of the 495 complaints received by the Busan civic group that represents foreign migrant workers, 142 (28.7 percent) involve back pay, while 124 (25.1 percent) involve severance pay.
There are more than one million foreigners working in Korea now. Out those, 220,000 are working illegally. According to statistics compiled by a network of civic groups representing the rights of foreign migrant workers, these people work an average 11 hours a day and receive W830,000 a month, which is the minimum wage for Korean workers. With more and more Koreans shunning difficult and labor-intensive jobs, there will be greater demand for foreign laborers and that means more illegal workers as well. These injustices happening to such workers must be rectified soon.
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