The case of “posting a foreign worker at a work station without any consideration of his religious faith” was resolved by the defendant company’s voluntary shift of petitioner’s task during investigation process by the NHRCK.
The Muslim petitioner (male, 36) from Indonesia submitted a petition before the NHRCK on February 2012 claiming that his request to alter his duty which is making food with pork was not taken care of even though producing food with pig’s internal organs is not appropriate to carry out for a petitioner as a Muslim. The petitioner reported he was not well informed about his future assignment when signing a contract paper which was written in Korean.
According to the Act on Foreign Workers’ Employment, Etc, a foreign worker “may apply for a transfer to another business or workplace” “if he/she finds it difficult to continue his/her normal employment relationship in the business or workplace due to a ground that” “1. Where his/her employer intends to terminate his/her labor contract during the contract period or to refuse to renew his/her contract after its expiration for a justifiable reason; 2. Where the foreign worker is deemed unable to continue to work in the workplace because of temporary shutdown or closure of business, or any other reason not attributable to him/her; 3. Where the employment permit is cancelled pursuant to Article 19 (1) or restrictions are imposed on the employment of foreign workers pursuant to Article 20 (1); 4. Where the working conditions of the workplace are not consistent with the terms and conditions of the labor contract, and where it is difficult to maintain the labor contract considering social norms due to the employer's unfair treatment, such as violation, etc., of working conditions; and 5. Where any other cause specified by the Presidential Decree occurs.”
However, it is difficult to acquire a legitimate transfer to another business or workplace because the communication between an applicant and a local job center usually faces difficulty due to a language barrier and “the employer’s unfair treatment” which is one of the statutory grounds of shift of workplace is interpreted in a very narrow manner in practice.
The NHRCK acknowledges that it may constitute a discriminatory act either posting a foreign worker who comes to Korea through the Employment Permit System without consideration of his/her religion or not granting a permit to transfer workplace on the ground of religious reason. The NHRCK will continue to contribute to the improvement of human rights situation of foreign workers in Korea in this regard.
