The Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) said it inspected nonregular workers' conditions in 30 cities, counties and districts and found legal violations in 28.
According to the "Results of the planned inspection on compliance with nonregular workers' conditions by local governments (basic local governments)" released on the 23rd, 113 violations of labor-related laws were uncovered in 28 cities, counties and districts. The inspection targeted 30 cities, counties and districts where the share of fixed-term workers employed for less than a year was high or where problems such as split contracts had been raised by the media.
Specifically, an instance was uncovered in which a fixed-term worker who had effectively worked for more than a year due to repeated nominal short-term contracts was not paid a severance of 2.5 million won. There were also cases where allowances totaling 100 million won were not paid to fixed-term workers, and where sexual harassment prevention training was not conducted.
Unreasonable employment practices were also identified in 30 cities, counties and districts. Of these, 2,117 nonregular workers had contracts of more than 11 months and less than one year. There were 1,833 people on 364-day contracts.
Seven cities, counties and districts did not introduce a prior screening system for the hiring of dispatched and contract workers. The prior screening system is a scheme that requires pre-screening in the public sector to prevent the overuse of nonregular workers, allowing their hiring only for unavoidable reasons. In three cities, counties and districts, the system had been introduced but 240 fixed-term workers were hired without going through it.
The labor ministry ordered immediate correction of the legal violations. The ministry said it will respond strictly, including referring cases to investigative authorities for legal action if the cities, counties and districts fail to correct them.
Kim Young-hoon, Minister of the labor ministry, said, "Practices such as split contracts in the public sector can no longer be tolerated in the name of custom," adding, "We will build workplaces starting from the public sector where the value of workers' labor is respected."