Ninety-one seasonal workers from the Philippines who worked in Yanggu County, Gangwon Province, filed a complaint with the Ministry of Employment and Labor, claiming they were extorted 2.16 million won by a broker, while police are looking into whether there was collusion between Yanggu County and the broker.
The broker intercepted part of the wages that farming households were to pay to the seasonal workers. A contract employee from Yanggu County office was also involved in the process of the broker taking the wages.
From 2023, Yanggu County sent multiple messages to farming households that hire seasonal workers, stating, "Please deduct 00 million won from the worker's salary and deposit it in NongHyup, and remit the remainder to the worker's account." The amounts varied from 250,000 won to 750,000 won depending on the worker. The attached NongHyup account was reportedly in the broker's name.
A staff member from Yanggu County office who sent the message said, "At that time, it was done to assist farmers and the broker in settling accounts, and since Yanggu County and the broker had been working together since the beginning of the contract, we did not know that the broker was an illegal business."
Since introducing the seasonal worker system in 2016, Yanggu County received seasonal workers from Tarlac Province in the Philippines until 2022. Later, right after Suheung was inaugurated as county head, an agreement was signed with Paete and Pangil cities in Laguna Province, Philippines, at the end of 2022.
During the process of changing the area for introducing seasonal workers, this broker also became involved. The broker's corporate advisor and County Head Suheung are high school alumni. For this reason, rumors circulated in the region about collusion between Yanggu County and the broker. The broker's advisor, Mr. A, said, "It is true that we are high school classmates, but I have hardly met him ten times in 40 years." ChosunBiz made multiple calls and sent messages to hear the position of County Head Suheung, but did not receive a response.
The Ministry of Justice is currently investigating whether Yanggu County and the broker violated essential matters regarding seasonal workers, while the Ministry of Employment and Labor is also investigating wage arrears. Police, commissioned by Yanggu County, are also investigating. The police transferred the case to the Gangwon Provincial Police Agency's anti-corruption investigation unit. The anti-corruption investigation unit of Gangwon Provincial Police Agency stated, "We are investigating for violations of the Employment Stabilization Act. We will first investigate why and how the broker received the money."
Yanggu County stated, "We cannot disclose anything as we are currently under investigation. Once the results come out, we will act responsibly." Regarding the timing of changing the seasonal worker agreement area right after County Head Suheung's inauguration, they mentioned, "It is true that the timing is fortuitous, but it is because there were many defections of workers from Tarlac City, leading the Ministry of Justice to designate us as a 'non-cooperating local government.'"
The city of Paete in the Philippines is not sending workers to Korea due to investigations into illegal recruitment and human trafficking. The Department of Migrant Workers in the Philippines also sent an official letter containing this information last April.
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