36,000 Labor Inspections in First Half of Year... 27.2 Billion Won in Wage Arrears Settled

Ministry of Employment's Disclosure of Labor Inspection Cases for the First Half of the Year

In the first half of the year, a total of approximately 36,000 labor law violations were identified across more than 12,000 workplaces. The amount of unpaid wages totaled 39 billion KRW, of which about 70% (27.2 billion KRW) was resolved through labor inspections.

View of an apartment construction site in the Banpo area of Seoul. This is unrelated to the article content. / Photo by Younghan Heo younghan@

The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced on the 31st that it conducted labor inspections at 11,964 workplaces nationwide in the first half of the year and detected a total of 36,363 labor law violations.

Specifically, the Ministry identified violations in the following categories: ▲Specification of working conditions (10,974 cases) ▲Wage arrears (7,039 cases) ▲Wage statements (6,313 cases) ▲Working hours, breaks, and leave (1,143 cases) ▲Labor-management councils (1,735 cases) ▲Childcare support (720 cases) ▲Minimum wage (200 cases) ▲Non-regular workers and gender discrimination (198 cases).

Focusing on protecting vulnerable workers, they uncovered cases of unpaid wages amounting to 39 billion KRW involving approximately 58,000 people and took corrective actions. As a result, unpaid wages amounting to 27.2 billion KRW related to about 42,000 people were resolved, and other cases were referred for judicial processing.

The Ministry conducted labor inspections at construction sites, where wage arrears have recently increased. They carried out inspections at the construction site level, focusing on major construction sites nationwide to prevent and eradicate wage arrears in construction sites structurally vulnerable to multi-tier subcontracting.

During this process, they reviewed three public construction sites in Incheon and confirmed violations of the direct payment principle, such as paying wages to site team leaders or employment agencies instead of workers, and corrected these issues. They also conducted surprise labor inspections targeting six construction companies, including both primary and subcontractors, at construction sites in Incheon where multiple wage arrears reports were received, uncovering a total of 27 legal violations and over 200 million KRW in unpaid wages, which were then rectified.

In the Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam regions, where tourism is well developed, they proactively inspected 11 large cafes and restaurants with concerns about weak labor management. As a result, they identified and corrected multiple cases of wage arrears, failure to apply public holidays designated by government offices, and discrimination against part-time workers.

The Ministry plans to continue strengthening labor inspections to protect vulnerable workers in the second half of the year. They will prevent illegal activities such as wage arrears at construction sites and expand labor inspections at workplaces with a large number of foreign workers. Additionally, special inspections will be conducted on companies with intentional and habitual legal violations.

Lee Jeong-sik, Minister of Employment and Labor, stated, "Labor inspections are a key means to eradicate illegal activities in the labor market and protect vulnerable workers," adding, "We will continue to listen to the voices of the people and strengthen labor inspections to protect workers' rights and interests in the second half of the year."

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