Gochang-gun to Implement Foreign Seasonal Worker Program Next Year

Published 21 Oct.2022 09:19(KST)

[Gochang=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Jae-gil] Gochang-gun, Jeonbuk, is promoting the ‘2023 Foreign Seasonal Worker Program’ to alleviate the difficulties faced by farms due to labor shortages during the farming season caused by rural population decline and aging.

According to the county on the 21st, the foreign seasonal worker program is a system that allows the legal employment of foreigners for a short period in the agricultural sector, which has high seasonal labor demand.

Farms wishing to apply must visit the town or township office by the 31st with their agricultural management registration certificate attached.

The number of workers that can be employed per applying farm is up to 9, depending on the crop and cultivation area.

Participants must provide workers with suitable housing conditions according to standards, pay wages above the minimum wage, subscribe to industrial accident compensation insurance, and comply with employer obligations such as working hours, break times, and holiday guarantees.

Also, to minimize unauthorized absences, family members residing in the home country of marriage immigrants and relatives within the fourth degree of kinship aged between 19 and 55 can be invited, and they will work at contracted farms while staying for five months on an E-8 visa.

Once the allocation number for Gochang-gun is confirmed through the Ministry of Justice’s allocation review committee, the entry and exit permit procedures for domestic entry will be completed, and work at farms will begin from March next year.

County Governor Shim Deok-seop said, “We will strive to ensure that labor supply is timely by utilizing the foreign seasonal worker program and plan to provide labor to small-scale farms requiring short-term workers of less than one month by newly promoting a public seasonal labor project.”