Wando-gun, Proactive Administration for Regulatory Innovation

Expansion of Foreign Seasonal Workers in the Fisheries Sector, Nationwide First Pilot Operation

Wando County Office (Photo by Wando County)

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Kyung-pil] Wando-gun, Jeollanam-do announced on the 17th that as a result of continuously requesting the Ministry of Justice to expand the permitted industries in the fisheries sector of the ‘Foreign Seasonal Worker Program’ operated by the Ministry of Justice, the industries, which were previously limited to land-based work, will be expanded to include offshore work, and Wando-gun will be the first in the nation to pilot this program in 2020.

This is welcome news like rain after a long drought for fishermen struggling with labor shortages during the fishing season.

The ‘Foreign Seasonal Worker Program’ is a system that allows the legal employment of foreigners for a short period to address labor shortages in agriculture and fisheries seasons, but the permitted industries were limited to land-based work such as processing and production of seaweed and shellfish, and drying anchovies.

Wando-gun, the largest fisheries county in the country, requires foreigners capable of both land and offshore work such as kelp harvesting and drying, abalone sorting, and seaweed spore work, but has faced difficulties in securing foreign labor, which amounts to about 2,800 people annually.

Accordingly, since 2017, through the ‘Visiting Regulatory Reporting Center,’ the county listened to the difficulties of fishermen who need foreign seasonal workers capable of both land and offshore work to solve the labor shortage in the aging fishing villages, and has continuously requested Jeollanam-do, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and the Ministry of Justice since 2017 to expand the permitted industries in the fisheries sector to include offshore work.

While preparing in advance for the supply of foreign seasonal workers by signing an MOU with Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam in 2018, the county made requests again last year but only received refusals without progress, prompting the county to seek approaches to solve the problem.

The answer was found through ‘regulatory innovation.’

In June last year, through a ‘Regulatory Innovation Meeting’ held with the Office for Government Policy Coordination, the county actively raised complaints about inconveniences and unreasonable regulations faced by residents. In September, officials from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries conducted an on-site inspection in Wando and held discussions with fishermen to verify the issues.

As a result, the county achieved the great success of having the Ministry of Justice expand the permitted industries in the fisheries sector of the ‘2020 Foreign Seasonal Worker Program’ and pilot it exclusively in Wando-gun in 2020.

This year, the pilot program with expanded permitted industries applies to seafood such as kelp, sea mustard, and seaweed, allowing offshore harvesting and land-based processing work. The number of workers allowed per household varies by production scale, with a maximum of six people per household, but in the case of seaweed farming, regardless of production scale, up to two workers per household are allowed, and the stay period can be extended once from three months.

Shin Woo-cheol, Wando-gun governor, said, “By securing permission for foreign seasonal workers in the offshore harvesting sector of fisheries, we have gained practical benefits such as solving labor shortages and increasing fishermen’s income. We will continue to resolve residents’ inconveniences through proactive administration.”

Meanwhile, the application requirements for the foreign seasonal worker program operating this year are ▲cases where no domestic workers can be found in the agriculture and fisheries sectors where foreign seasonal work is permitted ▲cases where agricultural and fisheries employers wish to introduce foreign seasonal workers ▲cases where local governments have appropriate infrastructure such as manpower and systems and prepare plans for the supply and operation of foreign seasonal workers and apply.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.