Health and Safety Policy for Migrant Workers Should Be Established
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) recommended that the Minister of Employment and Labor amend the health and safety training regulations for migrant workers. The amendment was proposed by the NHRCK to include obligating industrial safety training to migrant workers after their industrial placement.
Migrant workers are exposed to higher risk of industrial accidents. Most of them are employed by small sized businesses that usually have little capacity to provide adequate trainings to migrant workers. In addition, communication and cultural barriers tend to aggravate their poor working conditions.
The NHRCK viewed that migrant workers have the rights to receive necessary industrial health and safety trainings in accordance with the international human rights treaties as well as the domestic legislations.
A report by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA) revealed that migrant workers barely received health and safety trainings. More than a half of surveyed migrant workers (55.4 per cent) received the industrial health and safety training only once; 26.7 per cent received 2-3 times; only 7.3 per cent received 4-5 times and less than 10 per cent received the training more than 6 times after their industrial placement.
The NHRCK viewed that four-hour mandatory health and safety training is not sufficient and effective for migrant workers to ensure their industrial safety, due to its short hours, language and cultural barriers. Therefore, the NHRCK considered that a provision should be included to necessitate additional health and safety trainings, specific to the working environments of migrant workers after their industrial placement.
