Since last year dozens of agricultural sector migrant workers in Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, have been cheated by their employers with coupon payments that cannot be exchanged for money, a local migrant worker rights group said Saturday (12/14/2019) .
The Daegu and North Gyeongsang Migrant Workers Solidarity Group filed a petition against employers on Tuesday (10/12), claiming that around 200 migrant workers were victims of fraud by providing fake wage coupons. According to the workers, their employers handed out coupons and claimed that the homemade slips could easily be exchanged for cash at the end of the month.
According to the Korea Times, their employers take advantage of the workers’ lack of knowledge with local laws. Workers who work nine hours a day in the field are promised a paycheck of about 6,300 won per hour, which is less than the Korean standard minimum wage of 8,350 won per hour.
By paying migrant workers in the form of coupons, employers say they can be exchanged for cash when workers go to the hospital, pay rent or collect taxes. According to the activist group, their employers have detained about 400 million won ($335,000) from migrant workers who have been rotated to work on nearby farms. Some workers, wages withheld up to 30 million won.
Employers threatened to report workers who demanded proper pay to immigration authorities, because most of the workers who were victims were in Korea with family-invited visas who were unable to work. At a press conference outside the Daegu Regional Labor and Employment Administration, Tuesday (10/12), human rights groups criticized the labor ministry’s slowness in investigating the case.
“Everyone has rights, including the right not to be discriminated against based on nationality, color or ethnicity,” explained Kim Jung-gon, head of the Gyeongsang Migrant Workers Center.
“If the labor ministry had carried out thorough monitoring and punished employers’ misconduct, such incidents would have been prevented,” he added.
This year, there are around 10,000 migrant workers with valid visas to work in the agricultural sector. According to immigration data, the estimated number of foreign workers working illegally in agriculture is double the figure
