1 in 4 foreign laborers relocate with some citing violence: data

Foreign workers harvest cabbage at a farm in Hongcheon, Gangwon Province. (Yonhap)

Nearly 1 out of 4 low-skilled foreign workers who came to Korea on the E-9 visa have applied to change their workplace in the past six years on average, with some citing workplace violence, data showed Wednesday.

From 2017 until October 2022, Korea has seen nearly 45,000 applications on average to change the workplace each year, out of some 200,000 workers on an E-9 visa, according to data from the Ministry of Employment and Labor requested by Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Lee In-young. They accounted for 22.5 percent of such low-skilled workers from 16 countries including Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines and Mongolia.

This comes despite the fact that foreign workers under the E-9 visa are largely restricted from applying to change their workplace except under exceptional circumstances.

Workers can get permission to do so in case of a closure or a shutdown of an employer's business without workers' fault, an employer's violation of working condition, workers' injury at the workplace or failure to provide shelters for the workers.

Those who applied do not have the right to choose a new workplace, but instead the labor authorities here offers them a new job. Workers cannot file more than four applications in the first three years of residence, and more than three application in 22 months after the first change of a job.

The Labor Ministry data also showed that there were 17 cases each year on average from 2017 to 2021 where the worker applied for a change of workplace due to sexual violence, physical violence or verbal abuse at the workplace.

Meanwhile, 40 of the applicants each year failed to obtain permission from the Labor Ministry to change the workplace and continued to work there. According to Lee's office, such workers are usually exposed to mistreatment by employers because they find out through the government procedure that the workers had wanted to leave.

A new revision of the Act on the Employment of Foreign Workers has been proposed by Lee and 11 more lawmakers to so that a foreign worker's identity will not be disclosed to the employer when he or she applies for a change of workplace with the Labor Ministry.

Lawmakers said hiding the applicants' personal identity and discipline of violators could prevent employers' unfair treatment of applicants.

Foreign workers' rights issues have often been under the spotlight at the National Assembly. A pending bill proposed in July 2022 is aimed at making foreign workers eligible to apply for the change of workplace in such case that the current workplace has intense work conditions such as overtime, or exposes workers to a hazardous environment.