Certain Period of Servitude
Foreign workers who enter the country on non-specialist (E-9) visas should be prohibited from changing their assigned workplaces for a certain period of time, said Noh Min-sun, a researcher at the Korea Small and Medium Enterprise Institute, at a policy discussion on foreign workers for Korean SMEs held at the KBIZ Headquarters in the Yeouido area of Seoul on June 1. This is because Korean SMEs are faced with labor shortages due to some foreign workers demanding to terminate their contracts after less than six months of work and quitting if they do not get their way.
“When a foreign worker attempts to change his or her workplace even though there is no unavoidable reason, the employer should have a minimum response device,” Noh said. “If it is not the employer’s fault, it is necessary to consider devising measures restricting foreign workers’ change of their workplaces for a certain period of time.”
In fact, with a recent shortage of foreign workers, there have been many cases of friction between foreign workers and their employers over the issue of changing workplaces. Normally, when a foreign worker enters Korea on an E-9 visa, he or she can stay for a total of four years and 10 months, including three basic years and an additional optional period of one year and 10 months. Korean employers often sign a three-year contract with foreign workers and bring them to Korea, but an increasing number of foreign workers are demanding to terminate their contracts after less than half a year to change their jobs. In particular, unless their demands are met, they often quit their jobs or do not follow instructions, creating a labor shortage for companies.
A survey of 500 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with five or more employees that employ E-9 foreign workers found that 58.2 percent of them were asked to terminate their contracts within six months by foreign workers. The most common reason for termination was the desire to work with friends (38.5 percent). This problem is especially prevalent in rural areas and small businesses, causing severe labor shortages. “We will actively recommend to the government and the National Assembly that a system should be put in place to send misbehaving foreign workers who demand the change of their workplaces without any proper reasons to their home countries,” a KBIZ official said.
However, some experts said that more compensation should be given to foreign workers who work for a long time at their first companies in Korea. “There should be incentives such as extending the length of stay if they work faithfully in their contract periods at their first companies in Korea,” Noh said. “The Korean government needs to set up a mediation organization that can make a reasonable judgment in the event of a dispute between Korean employers and foreign employees and provide incentives for long-term foreign workers.”