Cultural, Social Clashes
The Korean government has been deploying foreign workers to solve a labor shortage at shipyards in recent years, but it is causing some problems in the field.
As thousands of foreign workers were hired by Korean shipbuilders in a short period of time, conflicts between existing workers and newly hired foreign workers have grown, and difficulties in communication between foreign and Korean workers have thrown a monkey wrench into the shipbuilding process. Recently, there have also been incidents of foreign workers running away from their shipyards without permission, and the issue of foreign labor at Korean shipyards is also becoming a social problem.
According to Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries on June 13, about 2,500 foreign workers are working for the company as of June. This exceeds the number of unionized workers there, as the Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries branch of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union currently only has about 2,100 members.
They also comprise more than half of the full-time workers at Hyundai. According to the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure, the company employed about 3,600 full-time workers in the first quarter of this year. This means that the 2,500 foreign workers amount to 70% of the full-time workers at the shipbuilder.
Placing foreign workers at Korean shipyards was initially promoted by the government in order to address a labor shortage there. In February, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, together with the Ministry of Justice, announced the results of visa screening for foreign workers in the shipbuilding sector and put about 2,000 foreign workers to work at Korean shipyards.
In response to requests from the Korean shipbuilding industry, the Korean government has revamped the Foreign Worker Visa System by abolishing an annual quota system for welders and painters and easing foreign worker agencies’ service year requirements from three years to one.
Shipbuilders are also offering various support measures to help foreign workers smoothly settle in Korea. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries is the first in the Korean shipbuilding industry to operate a foreign worker support center, and Hanwha Ocean (formerly known as Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering) has renovated dormitories for foreign workers and offers foreign menu items in the dormitory cafeteria every weekend.
However, Korean workers at Korean shipyards are not happy about the influx of foreign workers. The short period of time for the increase has led to cultural conflicts with Korean workers.
“There are many Korean workers who ignore foreign workers who do not speak Korean well,” a worker said. “There are cases of swearing and verbal abuse because many of them are from Southeast Asia.” There have also been some incidents of foreign workers leaving their jobs after a short time. In May, seven foreign workers from Thailand who joined HD Hyundai Heavy Industries as contract workers did not show up for work about one week after starting, and two others who worked for HD Hyundai Heavy Industries’ partner firms reportedly left their jobs around the same time.
In September 2022, more than 30 foreign workers failed to show up for work at Ulsan Shipyard, prompting Korean immigration officials to track their whereabouts.
As Korean shipbuilders were not sufficiently prepared for the large influx of foreign workers they received, sometimes production processes were disrupted. Another shipyard worker said, “As migrant workers have been put to work without proper preparation, they have caused some unexpected problems in the field.”