Actively utilizing sincere foreign workers for jobs that citizens avoid

The Korean government announced the ‘Rational Management Plan for Foreign Workforce’ on June 20 in order to actively utilize the increasing number of foreign workers and establish an effective management system for foreign workers.

Since July of last year, the government has formed a ‘Foreign Human Resources Integrated Management Promotion TF’ jointly with related ministries to discuss ways to improve irrational areas. As a result, there are not many noticeable changes from the perspective of foreign workers in the information announced this time. The Korean government's method of managing foreign workers is only changing. Still, We will summarize it briefly.

Efficient and unified foreign workforce management

First, the government decided to focus on the mid- to long-term supply and demand forecasts for each industry, centered on the relevant ministries, in order to understand the predictability of foreign manpower supply and demand and to promote customized manpower policies. For example, seasonal workers are foreign workers working in rural areas, and the Ministry of Justice has managed the scale of introduction. From now on, it will be handled by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. In addition, the Foreign Workforce Policy Committee (chaired by the Director of the Office for Government Policy Coordination) decided to consolidate and adjust the total amount of non-professional visas for each visa that was managed by each ministry.

In order to link and coordinate similar policies related to foreigners and make efficient decisions, we plan to merge the policy deliberation body (committee) related to foreigners into the (tentative name) Foreigners and Multicultural Policy Committee (Chairman: Prime Minister).

Institutionalization of participation by some private companies

The government decided to institutionalize the heavy involvement of private companies in the process of introducing foreign workers for seasonal work (E-8) and seafarer employment (E-10).

In particular, in order to solve the problem of private companies intervening and charging excessive costs in the process of introducing seasonal workers through MOUs between local governments, the government designated a specialized introduction agency to allow them to do the work legally. Instead, if this company commits a mistake such as charging excessive costs, it will be sanctioned. We also decided to further expand public seasonal work.

Regarding the employment of foreign seafarers, we decided to establish qualification standards for private placement agencies and implement evaluation and sanctions through specialized agencies.

Easier transition to skilled workers

As the demand for skilled workers continues to increase in industrial sites, the government is expanding the scale of conversion from non-professional workers (E-9, E-10) to skilled workers (E-7-4) and promoting institutional improvements such as easing conversion requirements.

In particular, we decided to reduce the number of evaluation items for skilled workers (E-7-4) from 11 to 5. We decided to exclude non-essential items such as educational background, assets, certifications, and educational training experience.

This year, the number of skilled workers (E-7-4) converted is 35,000.

On this day, Prime Minister Han Deok-soo said, “We must prioritize jobs for Korean citizens, but we must actively utilize conscientious foreign workers to fill vacant jobs that the public avoids.” “We have established an effective management system in a situation where the demand for foreign manpower is rapidly increasing,”

Mary Eve of Papaya Story