Ministry of Employment Introduces New Employment Permit System Quota of 5,000 Exclusively for Shipbuilding Industry

The government will establish a dedicated employment permit system (E-9 visa) quota of 5,000 for the shipbuilding industry to alleviate labor shortages. This is about double the workforce size allocated last year (2,344).

On the 24th, the Ministry of Employment and Labor held a Foreign Workforce Policy Committee meeting and decided to create a dedicated quota for foreign workers under the employment permit system in the shipbuilding industry and to shorten the re-entry period for foreign workers in the construction industry. These are follow-up measures to the crackdown on illegal and unfair practices at construction sites announced in February and the plan to resolve job vacancies announced in March.

According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, shipbuilding workplaces have so far utilized E-9 workers allocated within the overall manufacturing quota. As a result, it has been difficult to secure enough foreign workers who can be immediately deployed on site. With the establishment of a shipbuilding quota, foreign workers will be selected from the recruitment stage considering job skills related to shipbuilding, and the selected workers can be promptly assigned and utilized in the shipbuilding sector. This quota will be operated temporarily at a scale of 5,000 annually until the end of 2025.

The Ministry will strengthen vocational training for foreign workers entering under the shipbuilding quota and simultaneously promote improvements in workers’ working conditions and living environments. Based on operational results, the ministry plans to review expanding dedicated quotas to other labor-shortage industries that have signed win-win agreements between primary and subcontractors or labor-management cooperation agreements.

For E-9 workers in the construction sector who leave the country after working domestically, the re-entry period will also be shortened. Currently, after a stay of 4 years and 10 months, workers must leave the country and can only re-enter after 6 months. Going forward, workers who meet certain conditions?such as working in the same business or workplace for the entire employment period (4 years and 10 months) or working in the same industry during the employment period with a contract period of at least one year at the last workplace?will be allowed to re-enter one month after departure.

For the construction and service industries, the period required to make efforts to hire domestic workers will be shortened from the current 14 days to 7 days. This will allow all five industries to reduce the domestic recruitment effort period to 7 days and promptly hire foreign workers, with related laws and regulations to be revised accordingly.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

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