Korea bringing reforms in EPS rules

25 Sept, Seoul : The government of South Korea has presented through the Ministry of Labour a proposal in parliament for amending some points in the existing regulations in preparation for revising the Employment Permit System (EPS) laws.

As per the proposed laws, the worker who has changed the place of work can easily get re-employment in Korea as a ‘committed’ worker. For this, the law requires that the worker has to work in the same field of work that he/she was working before, should meet the language and work skills and should have worked in another company for at least one year.

Presently, the rule is such that if a worker changes the place of work the worker cannot come as a ‘committed’ labour once that person returns home country with the expiry of visa term of four years and 10 months. Similarly, preparations are on to change the law allowing a worker changing the place of work owing to sexual harassment to return as a ‘committed’ worker again at the recommendation of the related body even if one year term in another company is not completed.

The amendment to this law will now allow the worker to return to work again as committed worker in one month as against the current provision allowing the person to return only after three months. President of the Migrant Labour Union Udaya Rai said the laws in the process of amendment, although a welcome step, required all the migrant workers to be further united for making laws allowing the workers to change their place of work on their own without any conditionality.