Ministry of Employment and Labor Accepts Human Rights Commission Recommendation "Establishes Guidelines for Labor Inspectors' Investigation of Disabled Workers"

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) announced on the 25th that the Ministry of Employment and Labor has accepted its recommendation to establish guidelines for labor inspectors when investigating persons with disabilities.

On January 12th, the NHRCK recommended to Minister Lee Jeong-sik of the Ministry of Employment and Labor to prepare guidelines enabling labor inspectors to verify disability status when investigating cases involving persons with disabilities, and to regularly conduct human rights education to strengthen the protection of rights for disabled salt farm workers for employees at Branch A of the local Employment and Labor Office.

On the 29th of last month, the Ministry of Employment and Labor accepted the NHRCK’s recommendation and established the "Guidelines for Handling Reported Cases to Protect the Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities," which were disseminated to all local offices of the Ministry. Additionally, the Ministry reported back to the NHRCK that job training was conducted for all labor inspectors.

The NHRCK’s recommendation is related to the case of Mr. Park, who escaped labor exploitation at a salt farm located in Sinan-gun, Jeollanam-do, over a period of seven years since 2014. Mr. Park, who has an intellectual disability, filed a complaint with the local Employment and Labor Office regarding long-term wage arrears, but the office did not actively verify whether the complainant had a disability that made communication difficult, resulting in delayed protection of his rights.

The NHRCK judged that the failure of labor inspectors to verify disability status when investigating persons involved in cases constituted discrimination against persons with disabilities under the Act on the Prohibition of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities and Remedy against Infringement of their Rights.

The NHRCK stated, "We welcome the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s acceptance of the recommendation," and added, "We hope that the Ministry’s measures will lead to stronger protection of the rights of persons with disabilities during labor inspectors’ investigations in the future."

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