Expansion of Priority Vaccination for Essential Workers Including Delivery Riders... Rider Exclusivity Abolition "In the Second Half of the Year"

Ministry of Employment, After Consultation with Relevant Ministries, Selects Priority Groups for Vaccination

Minister of Employment and Labor An Kyung-duk presiding over a meeting to review the progress of measures to protect and support essential workers at the Seoul Regional Employment and Labor Office in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the 26th. At this meeting, the government decided to expand vaccination for essential workers who have not yet been vaccinated through consultations with relevant ministries and deliberations by the Vaccination Expert Committee. Essential workers refer to those who play a crucial role during the COVID-19 situation, such as medical personnel, caregivers, delivery and courier drivers, and sanitation workers. Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] A policy is being promoted to allow essential workers, including medical personnel, delivery and courier workers, and care workers, to receive vaccinations earlier.

On the 26th, the Ministry of Employment and Labor announced at a review meeting of the "Essential Worker Protection and Support Measures," which involved related ministries, that it would promote the expansion of priority vaccination for essential workers. Essential work refers to tasks necessary for protecting citizens' lives and maintaining social functions during disasters. Essential workers include medical personnel, care workers, delivery and courier workers, and sanitation workers. This means expanding the vaccination target beyond some essential workers currently prioritized, such as medical personnel and care workers for the elderly and disabled.

The government plans to select priority vaccination targets by comprehensively considering factors such as age, gender, and frequency of contact with unspecified many people among workers in each essential work sector through consultations with related ministries and deliberations by the Vaccination Expert Committee.

Since October last year, the government has formed a task force (TF) for essential workers involving related ministries to discuss protection and support measures for essential workers. At the meeting, the government evaluated that out of 65 tasks for protecting and supporting essential workers pursued so far, 19 have been completed, and the remaining 46 are being properly implemented through budget securing and other means.

Completed tasks include temporary support payments for visiting care workers, hazard pay for private dispatched personnel in medical institutions, expansion of social service centers, enactment of the Living Logistics Act, and compliance surveys on the three-person team work standard for sanitation workers.

Among the uncompleted tasks, the revision of exclusivity and the expansion of industrial accident insurance coverage for workers in special types of employment (Special Types of Workers, or "teukgo") are of utmost interest. Delivery workers, commonly called "riders," often receive orders from multiple platform companies. Because of this, they have been excluded from industrial accident insurance coverage due to the exclusivity requirement that "labor must be provided to a single business operator." Many riders use personal or unregistered motorcycles, and if an accident occurs even once, they often have to pay hundreds of thousands of won in insurance premiums themselves, yet many riders have not been protected by industrial accident insurance.

In this regard, at the 35th Emergency Economic Central Countermeasures Headquarters meeting on the 12th, the government announced plans to prepare a revision of the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act related to abolishing exclusivity for special types of workers' industrial accident insurance enrollment by early July at the latest. At the meeting, the government stated, "We will promote the revision of industrial accident insurance exclusivity and the expansion of applicable occupations for special types of workers in the second half of the year."

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