EPS turns to ITTS, modern slavery system?

[글샘]

S. Korea Ignores Migrant Workers Rights
Government lets industry groups administer new labor law
Koh Ki-bok (princeko)	Email Article  Print Article
	Published 2006-10-20 12:21 (KST)

Eleven years ago, 13 industrial technical trainees from Nepal in South Korea put on a demonstration to protest their treatment. They tied themselves up with heavy metal chains and shouted repeatedly, "We are human beings just like you. Treat us as decent human beings."

	JCMK members sit down demonstration calls for labor rights
	©2006 jcmk

They demanded their basic human rights and labor rights. Because of their protest, many Koreans came to realize the situation of industrial technical trainees, and what miserable working conditions they faced. The South Korea government promised that it would comply with the laborers' demands.

After that protest, the Joint Committee for Migrant Workers in Korea (JCMK) was established. JCMK supports migrant workers in Korea. Since its establishment, JCMK has focused on the abolition of the industrial technical trainee system (ITTS). The ITTS has spawned a complex pattern of labor problems, including undocumented workers, human rights violations, industrial accidents, unpaid salaries, and an irrational reliance on overseas manpower in export-import industries.

  TODAY'S TOP STORIES

	Korean Publishing Scandal
	Hungary and the Ethnic Code of Silence
	S. Korea Ignores Migrant Workers Rights
	Pedophile on MySpace.com Exposed
	'Marie Antoinette' Too Much Cake

  FROM THE SECTION

	S. Korea Ignores Migrant Workers Rights
	Korean Publishing Scandal
	N.K. Nuclear Test: Winners and Losers
	Don't Blame It on Sunshine
	The Tragedy of Yiyapo

Since 1994, the KFSB (Korea Federation of Small and medium Businesses) arranged for a considerable number of trainees to come in from undeveloped Asian countries. KFSB continues to support the ITTS, without consideration about protection of the trainees' rights.

That is why JCMK has been consistently clamoring for the abolition of the ITTS.

In August 2004, the South Korea government introduced the Employment Permit System (EPS) to reduce the number of undocumented workers and help businesses ease their labor shortages. From January 2007, it will replace the more than decade-old ITTS.

Under the EPS, migrant workers willing to work in Korea are required to learn about Korean culture and language in advance, and are permitted to work here for up to three years. They are entitled to enjoy the same treatment as local employees, including the right to organize, benefit from industrial accident insurance, and a guarantee of minimum wages.

The government said the system has worked smoothly. But after two years, more then 100 civil organizations,including JCMK, issued a joint proclamation on Oct. 17 accusing the government of killing the EPS. They said that in reality, the policy toward migrant laborers is going back to that of ITTS.

"According to recent reports, the government continues to use agencies such as KFSB, the Construction Association of Korea, the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, and the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative in all the processes of recruiting, distributing, and counseling migrant workers under the EPS. Those industry groups have played a major roll in violating migrant workers' human rights and labor rights as well as retaining venal practices under ITTS which constitute 'modern slavery.'"

The Korean government introduced EPS to protect migrants' human rights and labor rights and to establish an efficient employment management system for migrant workers in 2003. However, serious problems remain under EPS, such as provisions restricting migrant workers' ability to change workplaces and the continued coexistence with ITTS.

Nevertheless, the South Korean government announced a plan to put industry groups such as KFSB in charge of EPS. The Office for Government Policy Coordination, which is under the prime minister's office, guarantees the industry groups' interests by hiring them for recruiting and education programs for migrant workers.

Sign reads "abolish trainee system"
©2006 jcmk

So civil organizations strongly denounced this practice as violating the principle of protecting migrant workers' labor rights and called for excluding the private sector from these activities, particularly those industry groups.

Civil groups and labor organizations have jointed together to form a "joint Committee against enrollment of industry groups into EPS" and called for an immediate halt to immoral administrative practices and establishing countermeasures for protecting migrant workers' labor rights and excluding the private industry groups from the administration of EPS at all.

Until now, however, the government has not changed its position. So civil groups remained concerned that the EPS is going to turn into ITTS.

Koh Ki-bok is co-representative of JCMK.

©2006 OhmyNews

	고기복 기자는 용인이주노동자쉼터 대표로 일하고 있습니다.