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The
situation of Thai migrant workers in the
Republic
of
Korea
will be under the spotlight at an international meeting in
Bangkok
this week.
The two-day workshop will discuss ways to help Thais looking for work
in the
Republic
of
Korea
, to make recruitment and selection of Thai workers more efficient,
fair and transparent, and to find remedies for their most common
problems.
More
than 14,000 Thais are employed in
Korea
(April 2007 figures), primarily in manufacturing, making Thais the
third largest group of foreign workers in
Korea
, after Vietnamese and Filipinos.
The International Labour Organization (ILO), together with the Governments of Thailand and
Korea
, is organizing the meeting on the “Improvement of the Recruitment
and Preparation of Thai Migrant Workers to
Korea
”, at the
Amari Watergate
Hotel,
Bangkok
, from 17-18 January.
Topping the agenda will be a review of
Korea
’s guest worker programme, the Employment Permit System (EPS).
The EPS is managed jointly by the Korean Government and the
Governments of the migrants’ countries of origin.
The
EPS was introduced in 2003 and followed the Industrial Trainee System
(ITS). The ITS, which was
phased out in 2007, was criticized for not giving foreign workers
enough rights, including the right to adequate compensation.
By contrast, the EPS in theory gives foreign workers the same
rights as Korean workers, including the right to join a Korean trade
union, and access to the insurance and pension systems.
A
survey commissioned by the ILO and the Human Resources Development
Service of Korea in 2007 found that Thai workers face some problems in
Korea but were generally satisfied with the mandatory training and
preparation they need to go through before taking up employment.
The survey found that the cost to a Thai of being recruited for work
in
Korea
is comparatively low at about US$1,000.
However, the cost of language tuition (passing a Korean
language test is compulsory) is high, at about US$300. About one in
ten Thai workers relied on recruitment agencies because they lacked
information about or couldn’t understand the EPS.
Thai workers also wait the longest time between applying and
being offered a job, an average (median) time of about 8 months.
About half of the Thai workers surveyed said they had some reason to
complain about their work or treatment and of these almost all had
difficulty making their complaints understood. Some 27 per cent of the
Thai workers surveyed reported their actual work in
Korea
was different from what was outlined in their job contract.
"We expect this meeting will help to improve the management of labour
migration between
Thailand
and
Korea
,” said the ILO’s Regional Director for
Asia
and the Pacific, Ms Sachiko Yamamoto, who welcomed delegates to the
meeting. “If Thai workers are better prepared for and
better-adjusted to their new working environment in
Korea
, then they will ultimately be more productive”.
The workshop is
being jointly organized by the ILO, the Ministry of
Labour of
Thailand
, the Korean Ministry of
Labour, HRD
Korea and the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA).
For more information please contact:
Rakawin Leechanavanichpan
Programme Officer
ILO Regional Office for
Asia
and the Pacific
Tel: +662 288 2626
Sophy Fisher
Regional Information Officer
ILO Regional Office for
Asia
and the Pacific
Tel: +662 288 2482
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Public Information
