Concerns about Labor Shortage Due to Shortened Workweek
Korean small and medium-sized companies believe that the probation periods of foreign workers need to be extended and their wages need to be differentiated in accordance with the working periods, given that that they need longer periods for adaptation to work than South Korean workers, according to a recent survey.
The Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business said many of the 600 small and medium manufacturers that responded to its recent survey expressed such a view. In that survey, these companies said the wage burden on them is excessive compared to foreign workers’ productivity as their labor productivity and average monthly wage are equivalent to 87.4% and 95.6% of those of South Korean workers, respectively.
According to the survey, the average working hours of those companies that have foreign workers is 59.6 hours, which means they have to cut 7.6 hours to meet the 52-hour workweek required under the revised Labor Standards Act.
If those companies cut working hours, they are likely to face a foreign manpower shortage of 12.8%, which is likely to worsen their underemployment problem. In particular, small and medium manufacturing firms, especially those engaged in casting, heat treatment, and the like, are in need of more foreign workers as they are currently being shunned by South Korean workers. The survey participants, therefore, demanded that they be allowed to employ more foreign workers to offset underproduction that could result from work hour reduction.
Two thirds of the companies, in the meantime, said that they are willing to hire North Korean workers instead of non-Korean workers as their satisfaction with non-Korean workers tend to fall due to communication- and labor cost-related problems. About 70% of the firms willing to hire North Korean workers answered that North Korean worker employment would mitigate their employment-related difficulties.