Going forward, foreign workers will be able to work continuously in Korea for about 10 years without leaving the country. Currently, after working 4 years and 10 months, they must leave for at least one month. The government plans to revise related laws so foreign workers can stay on long term.
The Ministry of Strategy and Finance on the 30th held a "Emergency Economic Headquarters meeting and external economic ministers' meeting" and announced the direction for promoting an integrated support roadmap for foreign labor that includes these measures. Under the Act on the Employment, etc. of Foreign Workers, foreign workers can work in Korea for up to 4 years and 10 months twice, for a total of 9 years and 8 months. Because foreign workers mostly enter on the non-professional employment (E-9) visa, which has a 4-year-and-10-month stay, they cannot work the full 9 years and 8 months consecutively and must leave for 1 to 6 months in between.
In response, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) will push a plan that allows foreign workers to work long term without an exit-and-reentry procedure and enables Korean business sites to employ workers long term. They will also ease the reasons and the number of times foreign workers can change jobs. Currently, up to five times are allowed during 4 years and 10 months (unlimited in cases of unfair treatment). However, they did not announce which reasons would be added or how many more times would be allowed. That is because the day's event was only to release the broad roadmap. Detailed measures will be made public in June.
The government will also tighten employment restrictions on business sites that violate foreign workers' human rights or have serious industrial accidents. It will make clear that illegal accommodations must not be provided and strengthen online and offline counseling and reporting systems for foreign workers. It also plans to support matters related to employment, improvements to working conditions, and industrial safety regardless of status of stay.