Ministry of Employment to Strengthen 'Labor Inspection' for Vulnerable Workers This Year... Expanding Self-Diagnosis

Priority Investigation of Large Franchises with High Risk of Legal Violations
If Even One Wage Delay Report Is Intentional, Investigation Will Be Expanded

Minister of Employment and Labor An Kyung-duk Photo by Yonhap News

The government plans to intensively operate 'On-site Prevention Inspection Days' to protect vulnerable labor groups such as youth and non-regular workers, and to strengthen planned supervision reflecting regional and industry characteristics. Given the unfavorable economic conditions due to COVID-19, efforts will also focus on activating preventive measures using self-diagnosis.

On the 26th, the Ministry of Employment and Labor announced the '2022 Comprehensive Labor Inspection Plan' containing these details. This year, to enhance public awareness of labor rights protection, strategies will be pursued to prevent legal violations in advance and improve the effectiveness of supervision.

First, regular inspections conducted according to the labor inspection plan will be strengthened. Sector-specific regular inspections will newly include the youth sector, focusing on protecting young workers, women, foreigners, and workers with disabilities, while labor inspections will be expanded in sectors with poor labor environments such as non-regular workers.

However, considering the ongoing economic difficulties due to the spread of COVID-19, regular inspections will emphasize preventing legal violations, and education and self-diagnosis will be actively utilized before conducting inspections.

Accordingly, self-diagnosis checklists will be distributed to workplaces three times the number of inspection targets to enable workplaces to assess their own legal compliance, and labor inspectors will support this by providing educational content explaining labor laws directly.

For small businesses where labor incidents such as wage arrears repeatedly occur, 'On-site Prevention Inspection Days' will be operated, and each regional labor office will select vulnerable industries quarterly to intensively inspect the four basic labor standards. Guidance on labor management will also be strengthened for small- and medium-sized workplaces with weak labor management capabilities.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor will also strengthen planned inspections conducted as needed to respond more actively to major issues in the labor field. Large franchises, which employ many young workers but have high concerns about legal violations, are expected to be prioritized for investigation.

To protect workers from repeated and habitual wage arrears, complaint-based inspections will be expanded. Previously, workplaces with three or more wage arrears complaints within the past year were subject to inspection, but from this year, workplaces with even one complaint will be included if the reason is intentional or if many workers are affected.

Special inspections will be conducted on workplaces with serious legal violations that have caused social controversy, such as assault against workers, workplace harassment, and sexual harassment.

During special inspections, thorough checks of labor laws will be conducted, and strict measures will be taken against violations. In particular, when necessary, organizational culture diagnoses will be actively combined to prevent recurrence and fundamentally resolve problems such as workplace harassment.

After special inspections, the results and messages will be managed to spread not only to similar industries but nationwide, serving as a turning point to change wrongful practices and cultures in the labor field.

To this end, sharing of results and dissemination of messages after inspections will be systematically promoted. Especially for special inspections and planned ad-hoc inspections, considering the high public interest in preventing recurrence of similar cases and protecting workers, inspection results will be disclosed.

Workplaces requiring continuous management after labor inspections will be actively guided to participate in 'Workplace Innovation Consulting' to link labor inspections with improvements in corporate productivity and labor management systems.

Minister of Employment and Labor An Kyung-duk said, "This year, to further strengthen protection for vulnerable workers facing difficulties, we plan to actively promote education, self-diagnosis, and guidance in addition to labor inspections," adding, "We will actively promote labor law education and labor environment improvements for small and micro businesses in cooperation with local governments, industry associations, and organizations."

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